Never Ever Stays the Same
by All-that-is-green
Summary: After the defeat of the Volturi in Washington the Romanians have been plotting against the Volturi, now that they are ready to strike will they be able to topple the Volturi especially with their new addition, who also happens to be Jane's mate. Post B-D
1. Just another mission

Nothing ever stays the same.

Chapter 1- Just another mission

I stood with my back up against the wall and my heart pounding in my chest, my chest heaving up and down from my rapid panting. I was covered in ash and sweat from my near burning and I had a few burns on my feet and legs where the fire had begun to devour me. The town's people had thought my brother and I were witches because we could do things, and they weren't even that interesting, I mean so what if someone scared me they felt a jab of pain and if my brother ever felt distressed people blacked out, so what. I didn't hear their footsteps as they proceeded gracefully into the room; they were like ghosts, pale and almost translucent with frightfully red eyes that bore into my brain and triggered my power and I noticed them flinch slightly and then the one that seemed to be the leader spoke to me

"Dear one, would you please stop that" he said in a voice that was feathery light and sickeningly sweet

"Why should I?" I asked putting in as much attitude as I could manage despite the fact I was cold with fear

"Because" he said just as serenely "you are safe now"

"Safe? Well if I'm safe then you won't mind telling me where my brother is then"

"Your brother, well he's with my brother, we are here to protect you because we have had our eyes on you two for quite some time"

"Who is 'we'?"

"We are the Volturi an ancient clan of Vampires that effectively make sure that we stay secret"

"Ok…" I began stuttering as the fear grew inside me "so why have you had your eyes on my brother and I"

"Because darling, we think you may posses certain gifts that may be beneficial to our plight"

"But why…I mean I'm only sixteen, I won't be any use to you" The man then flashed me a wicked grin and his sharp teeth gleamed in the dim moonlight, and it was then that I whimpered cowering against the wall even more my heart hammering even harder and my panting even wilder.

"Oh don't worry Jane; it'll be over before you know it"

All that I can remember of after that is blackness, eternal and deep and pain, absolute and bewildering pain.

"Jane!" A voiced exclaimed as I woke from my contemplation and then the face of my brother came into focus, beautiful and angelic like all things young and vampiric, even old and vampiric.

"Yes, Alec" I asked feigning irritation so he'd be quick about it

"Aro, wants to see us" Ah, Aro the man who changed me, the man who could be called my father if t weren't for the fact that he puts me in harms way every time he needs his precious laws enforced

"Alright then" I said as I gazed out of my bedroom window from my comfortable armchair "I'll follow you down in a second"

"Are you alright?"

"Yes, I'm fine, just, thinking"

"Ok then, see you down there" And within a second of saying that Alec was out of my room and making his way to Aro's study which meant that he wanted privacy. I stood up and placed the book I was reading back on the shelf and moved over to my closet where I grabbed my cloak and then moved towards the door opened it and then moved in the direction of Aro's study. I passed many a face as I navigated myself to the staircase that would bring me to the masters common room and then towards the hallway that led to Aro's quarters. I stopped at the door that was third furthest from the end and knocked on the door and waited for his feathery voice to let me in and then it came

"Come in Jane" I opened the door and walked into his lavishly decorated office with books, paintings, and priceless artefacts covering every inch of his office. Aro was sitting behind his desk beaming as he normally does his near translucent skin hasn't really changed from the day he changed me and that was almost three hundred years ago. Sitting in front of his desk was Alec and Demetri.

"Ok, now we can get started" Aro said with pure, unrelented enthusiasm 'I have a mission for you three, it is of great importance and I only trust you three with it" Aro then stopped to asses our reactions and then continued "it will require all three of your abilities to complete this task"

"What is the task then Master?" Demetri asked with unbashful curiosity almost sitting on the edge of his seat

"There is a human, who I believe has great potential and may even contain certain qualities that may be of use to us" Alec then interjected his own question

"So you want us to find this human and bring them back here?"

"No I want you to find the human, change him where he is and if you cannot detect any talent then you dispose of him" Aro said, unaffected by the instruction in his words, as if he had (and he had) ordered the deaths of hundreds of vampires and humans.

"That won't be a problem master, just give us the details and we'll leave in the morning." I said shooting a warning glance at both Alec and Demetri for their impertinence.

"Right, the human is a male, he is approximately 16 years old so about your age Alec and Jane and he is currently staying in Belgium on a family holiday and we believe that this will make good cover for his disappearance. He is Irish, just thought I'd trow that in, and if he does have a gift you are to bring him back here"

"Understood master, but do we know his name?"

"Oh right, yes we do, he is named, Arthur Riordan Corcan" Aro finished and looked around at the three of us "Are you up to the task" and then we all said

"Yes"

"Then you are dismissed"

I walked out of the room gracefully and diligently and then once outside of Aro's grand office I began to run back to my room to get changed ignoring my brother and Demetri.

As I was packing my bags, mainly with the usual dark grey 1800's and early 1900's clothes I normally wore, I disturbed myself by thinking that if this person did have a gift that would involve three of us going to Belgium to retrieve does that mean Aro does not favour me anymore. I immediately shrugged the thought away because it was absurd to firstly think that something like that and secondly to have it bother me like it did. Then there was a knock on my door and then Demetri and Alec entered

"Hello Jane, packing already I see" Demetri said as he came in

"Demetri, it would have been very polite of you to wait until I invited you in" I said a sweetly as I could while leaving a trace of threat laced in my words

"There's no time for formalities we need to make a travel plan and possibly begin to outline our plan of attack and then there is always our cover story"

"Ok then, you still could have waited though" and then I gestured the two of them over to my fireplace where I had a love seat and an armchair organised and indicated for the two of them to sit down. I then went over to my desk retrieved my laptop and then moved to sit in the armchair facing them. I turned on the laptop and then loaded the Internet and started looking at flights while the other two discussed cover story.

"There is a flight to Brussels from Florence tomorrow at 11:35 am and it arrives 5:25 pm"

"Sounds good, book it, but make sure it's Business Class" Alec replied

"Hmm and…done" I said and then moved over and joined them on the couch "what's the story?"

"Well you two are going to act as my niece and nephew and you are in Belgium on holiday to spend quality time with me, sound ok?"

"Yeah, it's fine" Alec said unphased "Jane?"

"I like it"

"Thank-you, now I was planning on using you Jane to seduce him seeing as he is your age"

"I'm sorry come again," I said as I gasped at him, I then pulled myself together and gave him a glare and a little shock, he flinched, and I felt the normal relief that I do after I inflict pain.

"My suggestion was to just have you, well…you know seduce and lure him to us so we can change him" I raised an eyebrow at him and he flinched thinking I was going to shock him, I love having people fear me it gives me gusto and feeds my ego. God I love myself.

"Ok then Demetri, I'll do it, what could possibly go wrong"

"True" Demetri agreed, "Now I'm going to go to my room and pack, so see you two in 5 hours in the lobby"

"I'll head to my room to, so see-you Jane" Alec said, and after a peck on the cheek from Alec both of them left to their respective rooms and I cleaned up and continued packing not bothered by the plan in the slightest.

* * *

A/N: I will publish the next chapter of this story if there seems to be a market for it. So please Review to let me know if my efforts are wanted.


	2. Everything must go according to plan

Nothing ever stays the same.

A/N: Just a quick one…just a shout out to Zemmyx1995 and Kikitwilight for the reviews they brought a smile to my face and made my late night, last night (Australia FYI) worth it. However, not to forget the wonderful Idoula for writing my first review and helping my transition into the world of FanFiction…Now on with the story…

Chapter 2- everything must go according to plan

It was still dark when I met with Demetri and Alec in the lobby of our building, when I got there Felix was standing there with Demetri talking while Alec was yet to arrive. When I walked through the doors Demetri turned to me and said

"Felix will be driving us to the airport and then waiting in Florence for us to return"

"Fine by me" I said "As long as you have cleared it Aro"

"Don't worry Jane, I have"Felix said, "But you're welcome to go and find out if I'm lying"

"I'll be fine" I replied, "Where's Alec?"

"I'm here, not to worry" Alec called as he entered the lobby, he stopped before us looking a bit anxious and then said "well are we going or not?"

"Yes we are" answered Demetri "and we'll be in Felix's car"

"What the Dodge Caliber" Alec Scoffed, Felix insulted by this remark began to flex his muscles in Alecs face and said

"Yeah, got a problem with that?" Alec merely raised an eyebrow and retorted

"I do, what are you going to do about it?" Felix then raised his arm as if he were about to hit Alec and Alec crouched down into a defensive position, but before anyone could do anything I walked between them and pushed them both

"Okay children; let's go before I have to drag you to the car"

"Yes, ma'am" Felix and Alec both said in unison, knocking their ankles together and saluting and then following me down to the garage.

We reached Felix's car to the sight of Demetri bouncing up and down of the bonnet.

"About time you got here, I thought I was going to have to do some real damage as incentive," He taunted

"Yeah, Yeah, now get off my car before I remove you from my car" Felix threatened

"Ooo, a bit touchy this morning Felix" teased Demetri

"Yeah, because you are jumping on my car" And so more arguing, looks like I'm going to have to step in again, so I did, but this time I yelled

"CHILDREN, stop this at once. Demetri get of the car now, and Felix open and start the damn car so we can leave" At once Demetri and Felix stopped what they were doing and did what they were asked and Alec who was laughing at what the other two were doing was now silent and putting his bags in the back of the car. I smiled on the inside thinking about how much power I had over these people, it was almost like a drug to me, satisfying me and making me happy with the way that I am. "Alright are we ready to leave?" I said as I got into the backseat of the car sitting behind Demetri

"We are" Felix said cautiously as if he was being careful not to say something that would insult me, smart boy, I should scare him some more

"Then go" I snapped at him, and no later than I had said we were driving out of the underground garage that looked more like a car-park than anything else.

"Jane" Felix addressed me quietly as we were speeding through the streets of Volterra "This trip will take about an hour and fifteen minutes"

"Thank-you Felix" and with that the journey to Florence was quiet and uneventful, with each of the boys occasionally glancing at me to make sure that I looked as if I was in a good mood and to put them more on edge every time they looked I shot them a glare. The Tuscan landscape sped past my window and to a human all it would have been was a blur but to me and every other vampire world, it was clear. The sharp cliff faces and trees and the green grass, which all combined and contrasted uniquely like no other place on earth.

We finally arrived at Florence and began the slow weave through the streets to make our way to the airport. I was glad that the highway that stopped near the city centre could be picked up before you hit the actual city centre as it saved us a lot of time and patience as it was now peak-hour. and I can tell since I was really now only regaining my cool that Felix had taken this route on purpose as to not push me any further. Felix dropped us off at the shadiest part of the airport entrance that he could find, as it was quite sunny out and said good-bye to us.

"And remember" he said "make it quick, and if your going to be longer than two weeks tell me because I'll be back in Volterra by then"

"Alright Felix, goodbye" Demetri said

"Bye Felix" I said. Then Alec reasonably more relaxed than the rest of us said.

"See you later Felix" and gave him a wink and an energetic wave

"Okay then, have fun kids" and with that Felix was speeding off toward the exit. Demetri, Alec, and I walked toward the Alitalia check in desk and waited patiently in line for us to be served. When we got there the woman, attending the desk eyed us in awe of Alec and I and of lust of Demetri.

"So are they your children sir?" she asked Demetri trying to break the monotony, and normally would not be bothered by such a question, except she asked it flirtatiously.

"No" Demetri replied just as flirtatiously "These two are my niece and nephew"

"Really then, do you have children?" Demetri didn't answer the question choosing to let the question in the open building up her anticipation, and then just as she was finishing tapping away at the computer to book us in, with our bags now tagged and making their journey to the plane he sighed and said.

"No, but that's what we're going to find out" The woman looked taken aback and then Demetri packed our passport and tickets his laptop case that was doubling as his carry-on luggage.

Time flew by as we were sitting in the Business Class lounge, and before I knew it we were boarding the plane. I felt that as we crossed from the boarding platform onto the actual plane that the mission had started so I got my game-face on and began to devise how I was going to live up to my part of the plan. We knew that once we arrived that we would need to go and check-in to our hotel and get comfortable and then go out searching for him, or at least that was what Demetri would do. Alec and I were to stay back in the Hotel room, searching our databases for any sign of him and of any history that would give us a clue as to what his power may be. Then there was Alec who would after I 'retrieved him' would make him blind and then change him. Then all three of us would watch over him periodically over the three day period, then when he heard the first signals of the finish of his transformation then we would all be there to manage him and then when Alec has got him 'anaesthetised' Demetri and I would go and get him some food. Then when all that was finished we would charter our private jet that was already in Brussels and fly back home, that was if he had a gift and if not we were still going back on that private Jet anyway because this Air-plane staff were downright annoying. It was a relatively short-flight but the crew were just in your face always offering you food and drink or hot towels. Now my mind has splurged a bit time to get back on topic. My part of the plan, I was not known for being a seductress and I never had to as no man or woman for that matter has ever appealed to me romantically in fact now that I think of it no man or woman appeals to me at all unless it's in terms of food or torture. I mean the only reason that I get along with the rest of the guard is because I have to, to survive and to stay with the Volturi. However, back on topic, how am I evil little Jane supposed to seduce a boy I mean I was almost screwed unless he liked pretty faces or screwed up pasts. But I'll think of something I mean I have known Heidi for a long time and I have been around Chelsea and Afton for a while too. I turned to the two boys sitting to my left, Demetri was sitting closest to the window because he was the biggest child but to the outside he just looked like he was eliminating the argument between the actual children.

"You two" I addressed and they both looked at me and I will commend them for doing it quick smart. "We'll be landing soon and I just want you to know that I want us to follow the plan to the letter, let's make it quick, easy and painless…for us anyway"

"Sure thing Jane" Alec said casually still listening to his movie and then Demetri followed him by saying.

"No problem, no objections here what-so-ever"

Then half an hour later, we landed. We made our way to the rental car, which was a pretty average Volkswagen Passat and then made our way to the hotel and then the mission would be kicked into action. Everything must go according to plan, and so far, everything was going according to plan.

A/N: Just so anyone who reviews or reads, knows I can take criticism very well and I would like for you to criticise it in order for me to develop my writing skill…but please keep it constructive or I will feel the desire to retaliate and I will not joke when I say I have made people cry with my retaliations.


	3. Sometimes it

Nothing Ever Stays the Same

Chapter 3- Sometimes it's easier too make it up as you go along

"Are you two comfortable" Demetri asked as he was heading out the door of our hotel suite before beginning the search for this Arthur character Aro had us looking for. Alec merely looked at I him and raised an eyebrow and then asked Demetri a little too incredulously.

"Seriously?" Demetri then merely looked at him in puzzlement before being hit with the realization that came with the idiocy of his words.

"Yeah you'll be fine," He said casually waving off his mistake, smooth, and then he gave us both a curt nod and left, obviously afraid of embarrassing himself further.

"So, where do we start" Alec asked me, he was looking at me but I was looking through him, not thinking of anything just staring into space, occupying my mind with the nothingness, it's just unfortunate for Alec that when I occupy my mind with the nothingness I lose a bit of control of my power, so when he went to give me a nudge to wake me out of my trance, not only did I get startled but so did he and he fell a few paces backwards.

"Serves you right, you can't leave me alone for five minutes can you" I abused

"That's rich" he retaliated "coming from the girl who wanted to everything precisely to plan"

"And what's that supposed to mean" I asked with my temper starting to flare, wait, temper in check? Yes, carry on. "At least I'm not the one with daddy issues"

"Oh, is this how you want to play, I guess we have all eternity and you choose the precise moment in which we're supposed to doing something else entirely, but then again that's what you always did to draw the attention didn't you because you didn't get enough attention did you?"

"That's just absurd, Alec" I said this hoping to god that Alec would drop the argument because I hated when he got all third degree on me, and he was about to, he was going to mentally drill me with my issues until I was resorting to physical violence and that would be bad considering we are in a very human hotel and we are to remain inconspicuous.

"Fine" he said, "but only because of where we are"

"Fine" I said right back at him " Shall we get back to work now?"

"Yes, we shall"

"Good"

"Good"

"Get the laptop"

"Okay then" and with that he was off in the bedrooms fishing around his things for his laptop do his research.

I pulled out my laptop and began to do the same, except unlike Alec I was not looking for background information I was making an inquiry as to his current whereabouts. No luck. I turned around to Alec to see if he had anything to tell me that may help me in my search, when I turned to face he was already facing me, and what surprised me was that he grinning, ear to ear.

"What?" I demanded, and then Alec said the two words that I wanted to here most.

"Found him" I felt a smile creep upon my face but I quickly hid it and suppressed any excitement, I must emotionally detach myself from this so I chanted in my head 'be like Marcus'. Yes, I know it was mean. Yes, I know Aro would be able to see it and no I did not care, why? Because it worked.

"Where is he?" I asked in all seriousness

"Well he's giving a lecture, downstairs"

"Giving a lecture, but he's only sixteen, how smart is this kid?" I debated with myself "wait" I said suddenly, ending my one-way conversation with myself because I realised something important, something that I almost missed "did you say, downstairs?"

"Yes, I did" Alec said swelling with pride at his discovery "and it's starting in half an hour. Oh and its open invitation no ticket required"

"What is it on?" I asked quite professionally and earnestly if I do say so myself, I didn't want to let on that I was interested in this boy and his intelligence, I mean why wouldn't I be.

"It's on" Alec began saying as he scrolled through the site he was looking at. "His own theory of Sub-Cultures and the Generations"

"I'm sorry what?" I blurted out, I just couldn't comprehend what a child genius would be doing studying things like psychology, sociology and history

"It says here, that he has completed degrees in Psychology and one in Philosophy, this is one smart kid we're dealing with here and not to mention the fact that he is taking some time off now to travel and lecture before starting a M.D in both Psychology and Philosophy not to mention his interest in History."

"Oh my, he's something special alright" I admitted "But is that even possible" trying to extend the conversation as a new plan formulated in my head, it was brilliant and related back to something I had as just an errant thought on the plane.

"Well," Alec continued, "Apparently, oh, and to top it all off he started his degrees at Trinity College and is doing his M.D's at Dartmouth. Then, if he does do a PhD, my guess is that he will, he has offers from, Cambridge, Oxford, Stanford and Harvard" he finished, and I get the feeling that if he were human that he would be panting.

"Well then, I better get ready" I said, moving off towards my suitcase where I had picked several outfits that would be appropriate for the task I was about to undertake.

I decided on a nice black and white dress that went down to my thigh with a nice white band across the middle and a white bow on the front of the collar. With a black cape style coat by Isabella (there is that name again) Oliver and a pair of black flats designed by D'Orsay. Once satisfied that I was dressed appropriately and decently I went to tell Alec my plan, so he could Demetri in when he got back.

"You got all that Alec?" I asked just as I was about to leave the room, I looked at him and all I saw was his condescending look and a raised eyebrow boring into me, "Oh, you know what I mean"

"Seriously" was all he said, still with that look on his face, I merely waved him off and moved for the door and then on with the plan. However, before I could leave Alec interrupted me by insulting me, "You're not going out like that are you?"

"How do you mean?" I demanded of him "Am I not appropriately dressed for the public eye?"

"No, no, no, your clothes are fine, it's just your" he stopped, unsure of whether he should continue saying what he was going to say, but he decided against his better judgement and continued by saying "well…your, hair" he began to flinch, unsure of my reaction.

"My hair" I said quite coolly, but I could not help it afterwards my anger crept up mixing with the hilarity of the situation and then before I knew it, or could stop it, I was screaming at him amidst my constant fit of giggles spilling from my mouth like water from a waterfall.

"Yes…you're hair" he said clearly overwhelmed from my reaction "I took…the…uh…well, liberty of calling a hairdresser up to help, she should be here in a minute" and with that there was a knock on the door, this was going to painful so I needed to let Alec know.

"Alec, during this session, I'm going to make it painfully clear how much I don't like it, are we clear?" I made sure that I landed particular emphasis on the word painfully, just he knew my intentions. I heard him gulp before he responded, genuine fear burning in his eyes.

"Crystal" Is all Alec said before I pulled open the door, let the hairdresser in, and then, let her do her job. I made sure, every time she made a violent tug on my hair Alec would flinch making sure he remembered never to pull a stunt like that again.

Once my hair was by all standards nice, and by Alec's standards decent I walked out the door and hoped that I would be in time to make a front row seat and that dear, young Arthur would have to get a look at me. I got there and the theatre he was presenting in was almost full but the entire crowd seemed to be gravitating towards the back of the theatre, which left plenty of seats free at the back. I pulled aside one of the marshals to ask why so many people where sitting at the back. His answer was quite interesting.

"Because he is really scary" I raised my eyebrow and took a seat in the front seat waiting to see my victim come on. As I was waiting patiently I could hear the voices behind me talking, saying what a brave little a girl I was, others saying what I foolish little girl I was and some just called me naïve. Eventually people had to start coming towards the front row because all of the back were filled up, but that did not stop people standing up against the wall.

Eventually thew lights in the roomed dimmed a little and a figure came onto the stage by the little projector, he was of average height, for his age anyway, possibly a little taller that Alec. However, he had quite broad shoulders, and he had dark brown hair styled in a way that reminded one of Patrick Dempsey. In the shadows he was quite menacing but no more so then an angry Esme Cullen would be, or at least that was how it appeared to me and I was one of the most powerful vampires in the world.

The lights went up, and I said his name, in a voice that even in his human form was quite seducing, bending his words around his accent so he sounded similar to that of Pierce Brosnan. He said his name was, Arthur Corcan.


	4. What happened to the plan?

Nothing Ever Stays the Same

Chapter 4: What happened to the plan?

As it turns out, Arthur's lecture was quite fascinating, he was speaking on how sub-cultures that existed when I was human still exist today but they have evolved and adapted to their environments. He spoke well and convincingly with his smooth and beautiful voice making everything all the sweeter. It was at that moment in time that I noticed a pattern in the seating that I had not noticed previously, all the male audience members stayed to the back rows, while all the females occupied the front rows with the exception of younger looking couples in the front and older looking couples at the back, and from what I could assume a few homosexuals in the front as well.

"Well then, I have nothing more to say" he said as he began to conclude his lecture "so, I'll let you be rid of me for the rest of the evening, you may go through the delete door, but don't forget to get your free drink as reward for being able to sit through 2 hours of me talking. Because I know I'll be having a drink or two, good-night" and with that he walked off to the massive applause of the audience, I wasn't surprised when I looked down to see that I too was clapping. Then everyone slowly rose from their seats when the lights went back up and dispersed through the exit and towards the bar, to their rooms or to their homes.

I stayed sitting down in my seat, just waiting or more so contemplating everything he said which I would never forget, mostly because I never would forget it with a vampiric memory but also because I never want to forget it. It was then I heard someone sit down in one of the many rows behind me, doing the same thing I was doing most likely, but I had no way of knowing. I sat there in silence for five minutes and decided it was time to go, but then I heard footsteps behind me, nice footsteps, no scuffing, and not too heavy. The mystery person who had once left me in my solitude and I left them to theirs was now sitting next to me. The mystery person was no other than Arthur himself, my prey walking straight into my trap.

"Do you mind if I join?" he asked in a sincerely polite voice

"Of course, go right ahead" I said gesturing to the seat next to me

"Arthur" he said holding out his hand for me to shake

"Jane" I said as I met his hand at shook it, he had a nice strong handshake, which gave me the feeling that he was strong and assertive.

"Oh" he said as we shook 'I'm sorry that I had the air-conditioning on"

"Excuse me?" I asked politely, making sure that I came off as attractive as possible

"You're hand" he said gesturing to it "It's freezing, and I feel I am to blame"

"Why do you say that?"

"Well I have the air-conditioning but on, because I love the cold but I hate the heat, it's just unbearable for me"

"Oh, well, then, it's perfectly okay, I hardly notice the cold at all"

"Ok, then" he smiled at me and I couldn't help but smile back "So, what did you think of the lecture?" he asked his tone going from sweet and endearing to professional in an instant

"I thought it was very good" I said, "It's quite an interesting theory you have"

"Don't go complimenting it until you've heard the full story" he told me quite matter-of-factly

"Well then" I said as sweetly as I could "What is the full story?" he laughed and blushed a little before saying

"I really don't want to tell you"

"And why not, you have me curious"

"Because, if I did tell you, you'd think I was showing off"

"And why would I think that?"

"Well, because…I wrote it between last night and 10 minutes before we started, with a majority of it being improvisation"

"Someone's modest" I said bluntly "and besides I thought someone as smart as you would have had a new stand-out theory to present"

"Of course I do" he said proudly "Just not ones I want anyone to see until I'm older"

"And why not?" I asked

"Because, if you haven't noticed I'm young, and these older souls don't tend to respect the young and their theories, so I'm saving all of my more radical theories until I'm older and have more respect in the world of academia." He said this quite sadly, I could tell that this topic upset him, and he got that to so he quickly adverted the subject "So, what did you think of the show? did you think the el' ones were impressed?" he asked half-heartedly, quite strange.

"Well I don't know about the 'el ones' but I was impressed"

"You were?" he asked with a raised eyebrow, he reminded me of Alec a bit, except I do not think I would ever get into a massive argument with him.

"I, honestly was, I mean even if wasn't one of you're more radical theories it was a well constructed argument, and I totally agree with it, I have some experience with the eighteenth century, trust me"

"Well then, thank-you for your praise, it means a lot to me" he said giving me a wink and sending me a wink and I felt my heart melt for just one second. Oh God. "So, let me buy you a drink" he said in that assertive tone

"Well, when you said with that infraction I guess it couldn't hurt" he offered me his hand and we left the room and entered the bar area, where he showed me to a seat and then asked me what drink I would like "come on" he said "be specific, alcoholic, non-alcoholic, give a poor guy a clue"

"Fine, a virgin coke and vodka please"

"Right, so coke" he laughed and I couldn't help but laugh, and my voice sounded like bells and wind chimes and I heard him sigh and caught him staring at me, but not in a dirty, lustrous way but more of a sweet, adoringly way. My plan was working without using my actual plan.

He came back with the two drinks, he himself drinking a cider. I then proceeded to give him what every natural psychologist wants, a puzzle; I revealed certain aspects of my personality and certain bits of information that would lead him to the greater picture that he would then have to piece together. A sure fire way to keep him interested.

"So" I said, "Tell me of your more adventurous theories"

"Well" he told, trying to make it funnier "I'm looking into the more meta-physical kind of psychology, I'm researching the link between religion, and humans need for it"

"Wow, that is truly something, and you know really interesting, I would read that thesis"

"You would, well, in that case," he said standing up and offering me his hand for he second time that night "Would you accompany me to my room, so you can see it?" This was it, the perfect opportunity for the predator to corner her prey, or at least that is how it should have been but no.

I took his hand and said to him "It would be my pleasure to"

As I followed him up to his room, we passed mine so I whispered something that Arthur would not hear but I was sure Alec or Demetri would be able to. As it turns out Arthur's room was just down the halls from ours so transporting him after I knocked him out would be easy. When we got inside his room, which was similarly decorated to mine, he led me over to a couch and sat me down; he then ran towards his bag and pulled out a ratty old notebook which he then preceded to hand to me, the notebook contained the his ideas and his brilliance written out in his sporadic writing.

"How come you're writing changes?" I asked curious to know the answer

"Well, I think it changes according to my mood, the angrier I am the fancier it becomes, where as the happier I am the more bubbly it looks" He answered

As I looked at the title that was scribbled in his handwriting, I could not help but be impressed at it, it read; _Man's desire for a leader: An in depth study of Man and its search for meaning and acceptance through a leader_. Moreover, the first sentence was a greater insight into the study. _"It is noticeable in society that wherever there are people operating in large groups or units there is some form of leader managing them, creating rules, and reprimanding them. Another noticeable observation is that people strive to impress their leader, whether it is a leader of their choosing, or a leader appointed by another authority." _

"This is really interesting," I said as I flicked through the rest of the thesis

"You think so?" He asked me apprehensively, and I understood why, this was his work on the line, very personal work, so he is very protective of it and more so what of him is in it.

"I do" I said as I smiled at him, he smiled back, but he still looked worried "Look I better go, my family we be wondering for me"

"Oh, yes of course, by all means" He said as we walked towards the door and opened it for me "Will I see you again?" he asked me politely with a mischievous slant to his speaking.

"I think you will, sooner than you think"

"I like the sound of that" he winked at me as I walked out and then I waved good-bye and he closed the door as I begun making the slow walk (while he was watching anyway) back to my room to rendezvous with the others.

When I got back to my room, I opened the door, walked in, and saw Alec and Demetri sitting on then settee, waiting patiently for me to get in and tell them the news.

"So?" Demetri asked me when I got in.

"Can't you give a girl a minute?" I asked as I went over to set my Jacket and Bag down and to let down my hair, take out earrings and all the rest.

"No, I can't" He said impatiently "We had a plan, a plan that you were enforcing, then when I get back, you're gone and all I have is Alec telling me you're taking further" he argued

"Well the ideal opportunity arose and I seized it, passing it up would have been foolish to pass it up" I retorted standing my ground

"You could have told me" I further added

"I could have, but then I would have been passing up the opportunity wouldn't it" I continued

"Fine, but tell me that you at least succeeded in your part of the plan"

"I did, he's in room 253, and he's yours for the taking" And at that Demetri and Alec left the room to go get him, it was late at night and no one would notice that he was being hauled around the corridors. I slumped onto the settee and sighed, before getting up and changing into my uniform which wasn't as comfortable as this dress, but I loved it more because…well, I loved my position and my authority.

* * *

A/N: Well there it is, my longest chapter in record time...I hope you enjoy and would really like to see some feedback so please review!


	5. What passes the time?

Nothing Ever Stays the Same

Chapter 5- What passes the time?

As I sat in the darkness of our hotel room waiting for Alec and Demetri to bring Arthur back to be changed, or he will be brought into the room already bitten and simply muted by Alec. I was hoping for the latter so I wouldn't have to face his conscious self until he was the transformation was complete, I don't think I'd be able to explain to him what was happening. About five minutes after Alec and Demetri had left Alec came into the room looking a bit dishevelled.

"He's gifted alright" he told me as he sat down next to me "won't be going near him for a while"

"Why?" I asked "Where is he?"

"Well" Alec began, getting himself into storytelling mode "After Demetri had bitten him, I put him to 'sleep'" he said the last part while doing the inverted comma action "the room began to shake and different objects in the room began to levitate" I interrupted him

"Where exactly is he?" I asked forcefully, Alec just gave me a strange inquiring look.

As I ran through the streets of Brussels not paying attention to my surroundings only my destination I had several emotions running through me at the time; relief that Arthur had a talent and that I would get to see him again. Panic that he might kill Demetri before I get there and well I couldn't pin the last one down it was a mix between angst and joy (is that masochism? I think it is) I found the container that I was looking for and when I went to open the door I found I couldn't, I tried with everything my vampire might could manage but I just couldn't open the door, so I knocked, I knocked so hard I made several large dents in the door of the container and then I heard movement from inside and Demetri opened the door.

"What are you doing here?" He asked me formally and aggressively

"What am I doing here?" I asked him "Is that how you address your superior" I was lacing my words with sarcasm and anger "I think the correct thing to say would be, please, Jane, come in" Demetri looked at me dumbstruck for a second before he re-composed himself.

"Yes, of course, come in Jane" I stepped in giving him a shoulder bump and a dirty look

"Much better Demetri, I'll be sure to work on it back in Volterra"

"Yes miss" He said as he closed the door behind me.

I'd seen people as they were changed before but this was beyond normal. Even though he was still technically human I could see his power in action. For in the dingy little container there was one little table and above the table was Arthur, except he was…well floating. And there was a pressure in the room, as if a unknown force was pushing us away from Arthur and closer towards the walls of the container.

"My, my" I said "He is a special one" I approached him and looked at him, he was twitching, obviously he felt the pain, but he knew not to react to it "We need Alec"

"Why?" Demetri asked me

"Because the telekinesis is a reaction to the pain, so if we stop him from feeling, than we won't be struggling to stand up right"

"Ok, then" Demetri said "I'll go get him" I gave Demetri a wink and a wave o my hand and he was off, running towards the hotel to collect Alec to ease his pain.

I opened the door for Alec when he arrived, and then he went straight to work to see if we could stop the telekinesis by easing his pain. As Alec focused his eyes I also noticed Arthur lower towards the table and the pressure on our bodies relieve a little, eventually after Alec's gift took full affect we were back to normal pressure and Arthur was twitching around on his cot. A day later Demetri arrived back at the container with the Passat with Arthur's and our bags packed into the back of it ready to go as soon as he was ready. I admired Demetri's genius by taking Arthur's bag not only did Arthur have some of his own possessions but he also had made it seem as though Arthur had run away.

"Good work, Demetri" I'd said to him when he arrived, he simply beamed at me and then walked toward the container

"How is he?" He asked concernedly

"Not sure, another day maybe two" he nodded a went to sit down next to Alec who was still focusing hard because if his concentration faltered then we'd all go flying toward the walls of the container.

I could finally hear it, the finishing line of his transformation, I'd heard plenty of times before, the steady beat picking up pace, faster and faster until it would have been torn of it's arteries and veins running around his chest as it tried desperately to make up for the rest of his life.

"Alec, wait until he is fully transformed before you relinquish him" Alec made no movement but I knew he had heard me. The pounding of blood and venom through his body was at an all time high, and I could now make out his new and very much improved vampire features, he had now become a bit more gaunt, but not in a scary way but in a good looking don't mess with me kind of way. His baby fat had gone away to reveal a strong jaw and high cheekbones. Of course he had become pale, but it suited him as it does all vampires. I couldn't make out the details of the rest of his body as clothes obscured them but his hair had become more vitreous and glossy and had become a darker shade of brown, whether it was the light or the angle I'm not sure. The thudding of his heart stopped and I knew the transformation had been finished.

"Alec, it's time" and with my signal Alec relinquished his power form Arthur and is eyes shot open and flicked towards me, their deep crimson piercing through me, and I was left wondering, what was he thinking.

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A/N: A slap on the rist for me, this is by far my shortest chapter (approx 600 words) but anyway I am going to need your help. For the next chapter should i write it in Arthurs point of view or in Janes? Because i know what I'm going to write but I just want to know who's point of view would you like to see.

And please review, self-reassurance only goes so far!


	6. Unchartered territory

Nothing Ever Stays the Same

Chapter 6- Unchartered Territory

As his dark eyes stared at me there were so many emotions that littered his eyes, but predominately all I could see was confusion and panic and that's why he looked at me, consolidation, so I consolidated him…the best that I possibly could.

"Arthur?" I asked, "How are you feeling?" he looked at me more intensely which sent me mixed messages.

"I, I am really not sure, I mean I feel fantastic but I have this major burning in my throat"

"Yeah that's kind of a part of the species"

"Species?" he asked me. I couldn't bring myself so I made a signal for Demetri to finish.

"Arthur" he said as he made his way up to the table "I'm sure that by now you have noticed that we, Jane her brother Alec and I are different"

"Sure, I have, but you know I thought it was down to a very rich gene pool"

"Well, it isn't, it's due to the fact that we are Vampires" Demetri said this solemnly, I was glad that Demetri knew when to be professional "and when we bite people we transfer venom which transforms humans into vampires, does that make sense?" Demetri asked full of compassion.

"No, it doesn't make sense, because you're telling me that with a simple little bite you can alter a person's genetic make-up, also I gather you're trying to tell me that I myself have been changed into a vampire" Now I could tell Demetri was beginning to feel a little put off.

"Yes" answered Alec "We are part of the Vampire world's law enforcers if you will, we call ourselves the Volturi and we were sent to find and change you by our leader who believed that you may have certain talents that would be of use to our cause." A look of understanding flashed across Arthur's face and then he quickly recomposed himself to the same solemn look as before.

"So basically you people" he indicated to each of us "have tracked me down because you think I can do some special trick"

"We don't think," I spluttered out, and he looked at me with a strange look that had never been directed at me before in my existence.

"Excuse me?" he asked

"We don't think you have a power, we know you have a power"

"And how could you possibly know?" he argued

"Because" I took a deep breath preparing myself to give him more life altering news "Because we saw it, when you were being transformed, Arthur" I took another breathe, while I didn't need them it was calming psychologically "you're telekinetic"

"So I can move things with my mind, neat" We all looked at him funnily giving him a strange look

"Pardon?" Demetri asked

"I said neat, because if having a gift means what I think it means, it means I get to live, or rather exist" Alec gaped at him his eyes wide with surprise

"How could you know that?" He asked him, his tone matching his expression

"Well" Arthur said bracing for an explanation "You said," pointing at Alec "You were some sort of law enforcers, now, I'm only speculating when I say that one of the rules would be keeping vampires and your existence secret. So you wouldn't just change someone unless you thought they had a gift, and so, if they didn't have a gift you would kill them because they pose the threat of exposure."

"Your right so far, so can you tell me why newborns pose a threat?" Demetri encouraged

"Because I feel like drinking, lots, and given that I am now a vampire that would drinking human blood, which would mean killing, which would leave signs of our existence"

"Correct"

"So, given that I have a gift, and you're not going to kill me, mind if I do some drinking, because this burning is killer" he asked us politely with a hint of desperation

"Sure, Jane why don't you bring him out" Demetri said, I raised my eyebrow at him signalling that he was not one to be ordering my around and then he just raised his palms up and I understood. We were going to have to initiate him slowly.

"Fine, Arthur come on," I said moving towards the door and signalling for him to follow. However, he interrupts me by asking

"How long do vampires live for?" Alec was the first person to answer this question

"Forever" he said "unless we are torn up into pieces and the pieces are burnt"

"Well then, in that case we may as well be informal" He looked at me "Instead of always calling me Arthur call me Art"

"Right, then Art, come on, I'll teach you how to live" He smiled at me and then stopped at the door and indicated for me to go out first, I just stared at him and raised an eyebrow

"What?" he asked me incredulously "Just because I'm a vampire and you are most likely three hundred plus years older than me, doesn't mean I should neglect propriety" A gave him a wink and then walk out and he followed closing the door behind him.

"Ok then, were not treating this as a hunt because I don't have the patience to control a newborn"

"Alright, how are we going about this then?"

"We are going to stroll about the city and be selective"

"So...what are we going for, young? Female? Brunette? Oooh...Tourist?" That made me giggle...giggle, seriously, this newborn is going to be the end of me, so I better put my business face on and hide that he made me giggle...

"We're going for the straggler" I said as business-like as I could possibly muster in this moment of weakness

"The straggler?" he inquired

"Yes, the one foolish enough to hang around in the quite pockets on the edge of the city"

"Oh, all right then" Visibly excited as he was, he didn't sound all that enthused, perhaps it was too easy, but never the less I would bring him to the straggler. It was about two minutes later when I stopped Arthur.

"Can you smell that?" I asked him

"I can smell everything, please Jane, be specific" He said to me, I turned around to face him and I raised my eyebrows at him

"I would quit being facetious, especially around me, I'm not known for forgiveness"

"Well that would mean, that you are forgiving" he stated, I shook my head at him and turned around.

"That doesn't coordinate with my previous statement"

"Ah, but chéri it does, you said that you're not KNOWN, for forgiveness, at no point during that sentence did you allude that you don't forgive" He sent me a victorious smirk and I muttered to myself about stupid academics.

"Anyway" I declared, changing the subject "Can you smell the human?"

"Yes, I can" he answered frankly

"Well..." I said "Go get them"

"Really" He said sprightly, with his eyes opening up with delight and then running off in the direction.

Approximately ten minutes later Arthur came back from his hunt, his eyes not as black as they, now resembled a deep ruby colour. He had a huge grin on his face and as soon as he saw me his eyes lit up even more.

"That was brilliant" he declared to me as he came up "but now, I want more"

"Want all you like Art" I said to him "But that'll have to last you until we get back to Volterra"

"And why would that be?"

"Because, it's almost feeding time there, and we'll be back in time"

"Fine, are we meeting the others back at the container"

"No" I said "we'll be meeting at the jet"

"Jet, I may learn to like this organization yet"

"I'm sure you will" We began running towards...hold the phone...we? Where did that come from? I began running towards the private airport where our Jet was sitting with Arthur in tow. When we got there Alec and Demetri were waiting for us onboard already and as soon as we shut the door behind us the jet began to move. I decided that formal introductions were in order seeing as Arthur was sitting to himself awkward with the fact that both Demetri and Alec were staring at him intently.

"Demetri, Alec I'm sure you know Arthur, and Arthur this is Demetri and my twin brother Alec"

"Nice to meet you both" Arthur said sheepishly

"Pleasure" Demetri simply said

"And you too Arthur" My brother jovially said, and with that most of them tension in the cabin dissipated, except Demetri was still intent on Arthur.

"OW" Demetri exclaimed "What was that for?" Demetri said glaring at me

"Play nicely, or I'll put you in the corner"

As the trip wore on Alec and Arthur got deep into conversation and Demetri moved back towards the end of the cabin to keep an eye on Arthur and I just read, because as it turned out Renata had left on of her books on the plane from the last time Aro used it. It wasn't necessarily a good story, but it was enough to tie me over for the relatively short trip. We were about to land when Demetri spoke

"I have called Felix" he said "And he'll be waiting for us at the airport right outside our hanger ready to get us out of there quickly". When we landed Alec blocked Arthurs sense of smell so he wouldn't be driven mad by the smell of human, I mean it was hard for me to resist even after three hundred years, when you're thirsty, you're thirsty. Felix looked upset, and I couldn't imagine why, but thankfully Demetri asked him.

"Well" Felix began "this is the last time I'm going to get to drive Calli, here"

"Why is that?" Demetri inquired, and to my hysterics he was actually sympathetic

"Aro, is implementing a new system" Felix sighed "After the thing with the Cullen's, Aro wants us to look more official and he says, and I quote 'we can't achieve fear with individuality'"

"What's that supposed to mean?" Arthur asked

"It means, noobie, that each level of guard get's a different car that is unique to their level"

"Please" Arthur said "Answer the question in a way that will not force me to re-ask my question"

"Listen Punk" Felix said "I will not tolerate insubordination, from a noobie like you"

"Insubordination, you say" Arthur said "I'd say it would very hard for me to insubordinate when I have yet to be given a position in your guard yet, and because of that, while I will be polite, I will not be afraid to break-down your head and leave you lying in the foetal position in the boot of this car" I could tell from that display that Arthur was right and utterly truthful and Felix was weighing up his options very closely.

"Fine" Felix said "what this means is that, ordinary light grey guards will drive Audi A3's, those of a darker will drive A6's and everyone is given a partner. Renata and Santiago will be driving Maserati Quattroporte. Corin, Demetri, Heidi and I will be driving Porsche Panamera's. Afton and Chelsea the wonder couple will be driving a BMW 5 series. Jane and Alec will be driving Jaguar XF's" at this point both Alec and I smiled with delight "and they will get to keep their supercars" and then we were just completely unprofessional but overwhelmed with delight so we high-fived. "The wives are sharing a Rolls Royce Phantom. And our leaders get a Mercedes Benz S-Class each" Arthur interrupted by saying

"Some organization"

"How do you mean?" Alec asked him

"It's your leaders in a Mercedes, the classic dictator car"

"Well moving on, Aro gets a Ferrari 599GTB, Caius gets a Lamborghini Gallardo and Marcus gets a Bentley Continental GT"

"Wow" Arthur said "frankly with that list of cars I wouldn't care where you put me, they are all nice cars"

The rest of our Journey back to Volterra was uneventful, with nothing but the beautiful Tuscan landscape to entertain. I suppose all the interesting stuff will happen when we get back to the city.


	7. Oh, Volterra

Nothing Ever Stays the Same

Chapter 7- Oh, Volterra

As we pulled into the ancient city of Volterra Felix made a sharp right and followed a dark and windy side street. The street was bare; it bore no signs of life, no windows or doors, no baskets or groceries, just the uniform cobbled tiles that line the street and the same sandstone render that covers the walls that towered over them. The most ideal thing about this street for us vampires was that, despite the fact it was mid-day and while the sun was directly above us, the street was completely bathed in shadow and as if to flaunt it, there were several of our guards lined intermittently along the side of the street, looking ominous in their appearance. I looked to my side and I saw Arthur seemingly preparing himself for the next part of the plan, he was sitting deathly still and looking straight ahead of him his eyes wide and focused. The street began to gradually descend and the end was in sight, it was two doors of an ancient design, they were made of heavy wood and were braced by steel that was laid upon them in interesting designs, in the middle of the two doors was the crest of the Volturi, gleaming in its own magnificence that would make even the most rebellious vampire tremble with deference. As we closed the distance between ourselves and the doors that concealed the massive Volturi garage, vampires flanking the doors moved in closer to us essentially blocking our path. We came to a stop and one vampire, who was wearing a darker shade of gray than the others stepped forward, Felix rolled down his window and leaned out to talk to the guard.

"Can you let us in" Felix subtly demanded of the guard

"I can and will...if you can give me proof of identification" the guard replied, a bit to competently I'll add, Felix looked at him incredulously

"He must be new" Alec said to no one in particular, but in his frustration Felix shot back at him by saying

"You think" then he turned back onto the guard "either you let us in or I will set Jane on you and then you'll see we're part of this guard"

"Jane can't in there with you" the guard responded coolly

"And why is that?" Felix said impatience swiftly taking control of his voice

"She is in Belgium with Demetri and her brother, tracking one called Arthur" At these words Arthur began to feel the tension so he tried to break it

"I'm right here"

"Then may I see some identification"

"You may" And at that Arthur went into his pocket and retrieved his passport, and he handed it to the guard

"It's convincing" is all the guard said, and that was all he would say I before I leapt out of the car, gripped by the scruff and slung him against the wall.

"I have had enough, let us in now or I will torture you until you do" he gave me a defiant look

"You dare harm a guard of the Volturi" Then I was aware of a presence behind me, it was a familiar one, it was Alec.

"You dare speak like that to your superior officers" He said very sternly grabbing hold of my shoulders. He stood up and began to move towards us but before he could be tortured by me Heidi came up behind us.

"Is there a problem here?" The young guard immediately flustered with the appearance of the fabulous Heidi and began being smitten with her.

"Oh not at all...Mistress Heidi"

"Then why am I waiting to get into the garage" Then she saw me and Alec "Oooo, when did you guys get back, is Felix with you, and the new guy?"

"Take it down a notch Heidi" Alec said, intimidated by the sheer intensity of Heidi's excitement

"Yes Felix is here, and the new guy, Arthur very charming" at these words Arthur raised his hand in a thumb up "and we got back now, but noobie here won't let us in" I said all that in one breath, but then I can do most things, in fact all things with no breath

"Anthony" Heidi said in a mock disapproving tone, not that he would have noticed "Sweetie let them in"

"But they have no proof of identification" Anthony pleaded

"I know a great way to prove to you who I am and at the same time unleash my pent up aggression for you" I murmured

"Not to forget satiating your internal need for things to burn" Arthur said to me from the car

"Shut up, Arthur" I bit back at him

"I was just saying" he whimpered

"Well, anyway" Heidi said inquiring to Arthur who remained an enigma to her "Let them in, and if it all goes to shit I'll take all the blame...we cool"

"Fine, everything's good with you around" Anthony cooed looking dreamily at her, Heidi had a bit of a disturbed look on her face and looked hastily back at me all her excitement dissipating to panic

"I do not, for the life of me and my relative innocence, want you to disclose what noobie has concocted in his head, are we clear Heidi?" Heidi snapped to and looked at me with panic in her eyes still

"Yes ma'am" And without further ado we proceeded into the garage.

Arthur became more and more apprehensive as we stepped onto the elevator that would bring us close to the guard living quarters and from there we would bring him to the lobby were we would be escorted to the turret room. As we got arrived outside the entrance to the living quarters Heidi departed inside and Felix, Demetri, Alec, Arthur and myself continued to walk down the hall towards fate, or that's how my interpretation to Arthurs predicament, but it wasn't a predicament as such so much as an issue that could be easily ironed out. In the brightly lit plain and formal looking lobby Gianna greeted us with enthusiasm, her eyes bright with happiness. I cocked my head at her a gave her a stern gaze and she took a look at Arthur

"Good-morning Arthur, pleasure to meet you" she said in fluent Italian

"Gianna, I don't think he knows Italian" I replied in the same language

'It is okay Jane, my Italian is just fine" Arthur said to me in Italian and turned to Gianna "And may I dare say that it is a pleasure to meet such a lovely human as you"

All that was once respectable about a person such as Gianna melted away with a fit of giggles and blushes and shy looks at Arthur who was giving her a very smooth look leaning over the desk. I walked over to that little display and broke it up

"Gianna, would you please tell Aro that we have arrived, now" I said sternly as Gianna fumbled around pressing buttons and so forth telling Aro that we are here, so I turned to Arthur to give him a talking to. "And you" I said as I turned to him "We all know your charming, we all know your pretty so no need to seduce the humans or vampires"

"That is understandable, is there anyone I can seduce?" he asked earnestly

"None that would seem appropriate for a vampire" I answered, with some contempt I may add, the thought of half-breeds and shape-shifters drove me insane.

"Well in that case, for the duration of a undefined period of time I shall act frigid and unapproachable" I could immediately sense the holes he had made in my sentence but I ignored it, no ground would be made from arguing. Gianna then waved us into the turret room, so we proceeded inside, Alec and I in front Demetri and Felix behind us and Arthur trailing anxiously behind us.

* * *

A/N: Next Chapter is going to be very long, about twice the size of this one so tell me if you want me to break it into parts before I post it.


	8. Discussions

Nothing Ever Stays the Same

Chapter 8- Discussions

The Turret room was dimly lit and all along the shadowy edges of the room various members of the guard were stationed watching the moves of every vampire in the cavernous hall, at the head of the room, directly opposite the main door were three unique an intricately designed thrones and upon them each of the masters sat. At the far left sat Marcus in all is elegance with his usual look of utter boredom, but he had his eyes on Arthur, staring intently. In the middle sat Aro his eyes were keen and flicking between all of us that had entered the room resting on Arthur from time to time, his eyes were also wide with joy and his mouth stern and betraying no emotion. Caius, the last Master sat to the right of Aro and his eyes were boring into whatever they could find hold, which once again happened to be Arthur, poor thing, Caius had an air of pretentiousness about him that would make anyone who wasn't afraid of his position want to hit him. As I reached the place where we were to stop I bowed from my waist and addressed them.

"Masters Aro, Caius and Marcus, we return from Belgium with that of which you requested" It was then that Aro stood up, his eyes still alight with joy and excitement and his mouth not as stern.

"My dear Jane, it is wonderful to see you have returned, and even more so you have returned in good favour by bringing Arthur" Though Aro was addressing me he wasn't looking at me, he was looking at Arthur with curiosity that could kill a cat. "Alec, Felix, Demetri wonderful you have all returned as well, but now, Arthur, please step forward" As Arthur did, everyone in the room looked at him, he moved with certain grace and certainty that would almost surprise everyone in the room, saying that because of Marcus and cynical Caius. "Pleasure to meet you, my name is Aro and I am what one would say the leader of this group known as the Volturi" even though I was sure Alec had told him all of this Arthur still managed to stand there in mock interest and though Aro would know of this as soon as he touched Arthurs hand, I knew that he would b pleased by the gesture. "And so, Arthur, would you be interested in joining my coven" Arthurs next words were going to be important.

"You may want to check with the guards that changed me and brought me here before you go and offer any positions" Arthur said coolly and with even tone, he said the right words, by saying what he said he assured Aro of his respect for members that were ranking above him and their word, positive or not.

"That is a most gracious suggestion Arthur, are you not afraid that they may downplay you in any way" Aro said in his feathery voice of optimism and subtle danger

"They may, but it is their choice to describe how they see me, nothing I can do would stop them expressing their opinion"

"Very wise of you, and I shall take you up on the offer of asking them, though if I must say you're future with us is looking fairly hopeful" And with that Aro walked over to Felix and Felix offered his hand and the silent exchange began. Arthur stood in the same position hands behind his back and feet together and head facing forward eyes staring into the middle distance. Aro moved from Felix to Demetri and Demetri copied Felix's movements and still Arthur stared into nothing. Marcus had shifted his eyes from Arthur to me, and he was giving me a suspicious all-knowing look it was almost smug if it weren't for the fact he was still the most bored looking person I have ever seen. Aro moved from Demetri to Alec and soon he would be in front of me and I would need to have my hand ready for exhibition my thoughts organized so I may have a hope in hiding something, though I'm not sure what it is I am hiding from him.

"And Jane" I heard the feathery voice say as it was in front of me, my eyes snapped up and I noticed Arthur in my peripheral vision was now looking at me intensely but still with no expression on his face. I held my hand out for Aro and he took it eagerly looking at the hand as if it was the hand giving him the information.

After a few seconds he looked up at me and gave me a delighted look "Thank-you dear" and he turned back to Arthur "Look's like you are very gifted in more than one way, and you are very likable but there is a slight attitude problem, but then we all have problems"

"So what is your decision?"

"I would like to offer you a position again"

"And I would be pleased to accept"

"Fantastic, then would the five of you" he indicated to Demetri, Felix, Alec and I as well as Arthur "Would you join me upstairs in my office and will discuss the intricacies of the position and my new regulations" And with that Aro turned and moved to his office, following were Caius and Marcus who had risen in their seats in anticipation of Aro's words, Alec and Demetri were close behind Felix who had followed Aro and Arthur was just standing there unsure of what to do so I signalled him to follow me and with vampire speed we were charging down the rear of the thrones and moving a discrete spiral staircase moving to the segregated upper levels that were the masters chambers.

As we emerged from the spiral staircase that led to the master's common room Arthur was still moving with trepidation, still unsure about what was going to happen to him. The master's common room was indulgently decorated, with the scheme of dark red and dark mahogany the room was a sight to be seen. Every inch of the room was covered in some sort of artefact not withholding any of the three millennia that they have been living, everything was an artefact whether it was chair or a table, it could be a painting or an ornament, and some were books that the masters had collected in their human years or so on. Arthur was gaping at the sheer sense of nostalgia one would be hit with when entering this room. We took down one of the three halls that moved from the room down to Aro's section and we took the first left into Aro's study, it, like the common room was magnificent, eloquently suited to embody Aro's personality with various shades of green and oak furnishings that despite severe differences in age somehow matched in a charming way. Aro was sitting behind his desk and each Caius and Marcus were occupying the two seats in front of Aro's desk Felix and Demetri were on the left flank of the master's and Alec was on the right so I left Arthurs side to stand next to my brother, as was to be expected.

"So, Arthur, you have accepted a position with the Volturi, this is not something to be taken lightly, so I need to know that you are serious about this" Aro said from his perch his light and happy mood dissipated to a very serious business tone "I need to know that you are or will be loyal to us?"

"Aro, you had me changed so on some levels I know that you need me, or want me, for the moment that need or want is good enough for loyalty from me" he heaved a unneeded sigh and continued "As for the future, I will have to find something good in this life you have bestowed on me for me to remain loyal, otherwise I feel it will wane with time"

"And why should we not turn you away? If you're loyalty is up for sale" asked Caius from his seat at the front of Aro's desk, he had turned to face Arthur and had his legs crossed and his face set on an evaluative angle.

"Because as I mentioned you want me and if you went through all the trouble to change me you won't turn me away so easily"

"But we can't ignore the future"

"The future is ambiguous, who knows what might happen, but as I said, if in the future I find something that I like about this life I will eternally grateful to you for seeing fit to bestow this life on me"

"Well then Arthur" Aro interrupted "You are correct when you say we need you, and as such I would like to offer you a position equal to that of Alec and Jane" At this there was nearly an outburst from everyone who didn't have a clue as to what his power was, this meant that Caius and Marcus looked ready to about explode with anger and Marcus actually managed genuine surprise, but Aro raised his hand to silence them "but given the fact that your loyalty is as you would say ambiguous, I must tread cautiously before giving you so much power, so I am giving you a position equal to that of Felix and Demetri here, and given such a time when you become fully faithful or loyal you will not advance to the level of Alec and Jane"

"I have no digressions with that; in fact I think it's very generous"

"I have a problem with this Aro" said Caius in a near rage "We have no idea what he can do and we are giving him a very illustrious position in our guard"

"Caius, brother calm down, Arthur will prove just as useful to us as Alec in Jane in future battles we find ourselves participant"

"What can he do?" Marcus asked in a dreaded monotone

"Arthur is Telekinetic"

"More stylistic than I would have described it" Arthur said to himself

"So if that is decided than Felix and Demetri show Arthur to the spare room on your floor" Aro ordered resuming his happy demeanour

"There are no spare rooms on our floor"

"Oh, in that case Alec, Jane introduce him to your floor that's were he will be staying from now on"

"That isn't a problem master" I said as Alec and I began to walk out the door

"Wasn't there going to be a discussion about new regulations" Arthur said before he left

"For you three that will come later, right now you need to adjust to living together" and with a wave of his hand we were ushered out the door.

"So" Alec said "We'll show you to your new room."

I wasn't sure about these new living arrangements and being in such close vicinity with Arthur and mixed feelings, at least I had Alec to keep me stable. After passing through the guard's common room and passing to a spiral staircase and passing through the different levels and different shades of grey. After travelling up four flights of stairs we came to the floor Alec and I and now Arthur stay on. The common room was neatly set up with several bookcases stocked with books, several armchairs, couches and desks all equipped for our needs. There were then three corridors each with several rooms and one bathroom, Alec and I occupied two of those corridors and soon Arthur would have the last of them.

"Arthur, follow me and I'll show you you're new room" Alec said as we stopped in the common room

"Thank-you" Arthur replied and he followed Alec down the corridor to be introduced to his new room. With nothing to do I walked down to my room and decided to change out of what I was wearing and put on a white, scoop neck top with a black skirt and a pair of black ballet flats. I looked around my room and I saw my usual fireplace with two modern armchairs by it, my three identical bookcases exploding with my favourites and books that I mean to read, I saw the door to my wardrobe, the door to my bathroom ( not that it was really needed ) I saw my king sized modern bed that matched my armchairs and mounted on the wall was my forty-two inch LCD with HD, which was hooked up to my surround sound system with an amplifier and a hard-drive that every television was hooked up to, it contained every single movie owned by the Volturi and so it was easy access, but last of all was my CD player, the one thing that ever truly calmed me, the one thing I love more than Alec. I removed one of my 'to-read' books from the shelf and moved from my bedroom back to the common room. Alec was sitting in the common room, staring into nothingness, thinking about one thing or another.

"How is he coping?" I asked him

"He seems fine, but he strikes me as a suffer in silence type" Alec replied snapping from his reverie and looking up at me

"That could make it harder" I said

"I don't think so" Alec stated

"Why is that?" I asked earnestly, looking down at my brother with curiosity littering my eyes

"I think that he suffers in silence because that way he can deal with it"

"That makes no sense what-so-ever"

"Then don't worry about it"

Though I could tell Alec's theory was on the right track, I didn't really want to believe it because it meant that he would be very closed off for a long time, with no solutions and only time I decided to sit down and read my book.

Three hours passed and I was half-way through my book, and there was a knock at the door to the common room.

"Come in" I said and I put down my book and stood up to face the door to greet whoever came in, Alec had come out of his room to see who was here. As it turned out it was just Chelsea and Afton carrying our bags along with a few of the lower guard who were confounded by our set up on the top floor of the guards quarters considering quite a number of them had small rooms in the basement of the building.

"Hello Jane, and you too Alec" Chelsea said as she came in "These are your bags, Aro asked us to carry them up"

"Thank-you Chelsea, it is appreciated" I said

"Oh, you're welcome, and your hair looks lovely Jane"

"It wasn't necessary, but it helped"

"I heard" Chelsea then looked up and saw Arthur walk in "You must be Arthur" she inquired

"Yes, I am" he said timidly from behind me

"Pleasure to meet you, I'm Chelsea, and this is my husband Afton" Afton inclined his head

"Pleasure is all mine"

"Well" Afton said, and he moved toward Arthur "Aro, asked me to give you these" and he handed Arthur a set of keys and a map "and told me to tell you, to meet at the location marked on the map at about eight o'clock"

"Thank-you Afton, I'll just go and put this somewhere safe" and within the blink of a vampire eye he was gone and was back within another blink "Sorry if I don't seem very sociable, I'm just struggling with the thirst"

"That's perfectly fine, which reminds me, Heidi has food downstairs for us high ranking officials and were to go down in a few minutes" Chelsea said "You guys can put the bags down and leave, you're not needed now" she said and in a split second the bags were on the ground and the guards carrying them running for safety in the main common room. Chelsea had become relaxed and less wound up after coming back from Washington, she like Alec, Demetri and I were targets that we knew the Cullen's would try to get rid of first if it came to a fight. Her hair had gone from straight, which indicated her agitation and anger back to its normal curly and bouncy, which mixed with her natural golden blonde made for quite a sight and it made everyone feel a bit more happy to know Chelsea was perky again. Afton sported the same haircut he had when I first saw him, it was shoulder-blade length dead straight Auburn hair that was pulled back out of his face by two braided strands of his own hair that joined and fell at the back. Chelsea in physical appearance reminded me so much of an actress I saw on the Television recently Katherine Heigl I think her name was, and I am yet to find a suitable comparison that would sum up Afton, both Chelsea and Afton were French and joined us a hundred or so years ago after being together for fifty years previously, they were a good couple and even better people and I enjoyed what little time I spent with them.

"Would you like to accompany us downstairs" Alec said

"We would love to" Afton replied and that saw the five of us making our way downstairs but not before I snatched up my dark grey cloak, they transit to the turret room was a lot faster now that we weren't giving a semi-tour to Arthur, we zipped down the corridor and through to the doors and into the large and imposing Roman aged turret room.

Everyone part of the higher ranks of the guard was present for the feeding, all of us unevenly placed amongst the room all looking at the front doors where Heidi would lead a group of about fifty humans through the door for us to snack on. Of course, Heidi had, had them mustered and waiting before we got into the room, but this was just a ploy for the humans, for them to believe that this was just a normal tour that was free. Arthur's eyes were alight with anticipation at the coming meal, and he was also showing consternation and focus, trying to yield himself before he went battering down doors. Then the scent hit us, it was oozing in from the door, oh, the sweet smell of human tickling my nostrils and massaging my throat, and I hadn't even drunk yet oh, this was bitter-sweet torture that I revelled in, but I could tell it was getting harder and harder for Arthur to control himself, and that as soon as the humans were in the door he wouldn't be able to control himself. Then the doors opened and in walked Heidi wearing pencil skirt and a chiffon and silk blouse that, frankly, made her desirable to me, and filing behind her was twenty six, curious tourists absolutely stunned at the sight of twelve beautiful vampires. There were two for every one of us present with two left over due to Aro's absence. Arthur looked about ready to keel over, he was so overwhelmed with the scent, though he was doing very well to hide it.

* * *

A/N: Next Chapter should be up soon...but I can't and won't guarantee anything because I haven't started it yet, though in the next Arthur get's introduced to his power and recounts his story to Jane...so it will be from Jane's point of view, because she is my protagonist but you do find out what happens when Arthur and Aro meet.


	9. One Fine Day

Nothing Ever Stays the Same

Chapter 9- One Fine Day

As I stared at Arthurs hungry face I was reminded of the first time I tasted human blood, it was an unforgettable experience as I hovered over my victim's neck listening to blood pulse through the body under the thin membrane of skin, smelling the sweet smell of it, just being near blood drove one to the point of orgasm, and reflected on Arthurs face was what I remembered mine to be like, desperate and lustful.

"Hello everyone, sorry I'm late" Heidi announced as she walked in "You can go about your business now" and she closed the door, and I turned to Arthur

"Two each, eat up" I said and I sent him a wicked grin before I launched myself into a young man, who was lean, when they were lean the blood was cleaner. I drained the boy dry and let his limp body fall to the ground as I looked for my next victim, I scanned the room, and then I found one, a middle aged woman cowering in the corner of the room weeping, I ran over to her and startled the life out of her, she just about jumped out of her skin when she saw me, I offered my hand to her and looked her in the eyes "I will make it quick for you if you want" I said to her sweetly, she merely looked up at me, her eyes now filled with fire.

"I will make no deal with you devil-child" she spat, I merely sighed

"So be it" and I begun to torture her, making her scream, pumping adrenaline into her blood, oh how adrenaline sweetened the blood and made it tastier and it wasn't until she was a twisted screaming heap on the ground that I stopped and picked her up, her legs dragging on the ground even when I had her at eye-level "Sometimes, choosing to make a deal with a devil-child will save you a lot of pain, remember that for your next life" I sneered at her, her eyes went back into her head and her body went limp...Cardiac Arrest, that's new. I bit down letting the sweet blood swish around on my palette savouring all that I could as I drained her. When I was finished I dropped her body on the cold flagstone flooring and looked around, Caius and Marcus were seated in their respective thrones, Alec was sitting on the steps leading up to the thrones, his legs crossed and a look of sheer delight etched on his face as he gazed absent-mindedly at the wall, Chelsea and Afton were still drinking, Felix and Demetri were cleaning up the corpses, Santiago was rushing off somewhere, Renata was looking at herself in a mirror cleaning herself up, the wives had gone back upstairs and Arthur was talking to Heidi by the door. I was at a loss for what to do, so I walked over to Alec, I sat down next to him one leg lying over the other and looked down at the flagstone.

"What's the matter Jane?" He asked me sincerely his red eyes focused on me.

"Oh, nothing...really" I replied to him

"You sure?" He asked again

"Absolutely not" I said matter-of-factly, and he embraced me, one hand around my shoulder pulling me in close to him, he didn't say anything but his action implied everything for him. I saw Arthur walking over to us, his hair bouncing with his step and his face alight with a sort of bewildered delight.

"I'm going to head off to meet Aro now, and I don't know when I'll be back" he said, and I almost laughed

"Why are you telling us?" I asked in amusement

"Thought it to be polite to tell the people I'm sharing a floor with where I am"

"Well thank-you for the consideration" I replied

"I'll show you down to the garage" Alec said and he just about jumped to his feet.

"Oh, thank-you, I could use a hand navigating" Arthur said

"I'll see you back at the room" Alec said and kissed me on the forehead, Arthur just waving good-bye with a smile on his face, I waved back to him smiling in return.

"Trying out a new look Jane?" asked a voice from behind me "Or is it a new emotion?" I turned to see Felix standing between Caius and Marcus, Felix's expression was one of gloating, Caius' was an expression of nonchalance but it was Marcus' expression that really caught off guard; his eyes were boring into mine as if he were trying to communicate with me, but they also held surprise, and I mean to the enth degree.

"It's a new look Felix, but you're not going to get to benefit from it" I snapped, Caius now looked confused.

"What is happening here?" he asked, and to my surprise it wasn't Felix that answered but Marcus

"Don't worry about brother, you'll find out soon enough, everyone will"

"Peachy" I said mockingly before standing up in a swift movement "enjoy you're evenings" and I left quickly trying to avoid any surprising revelations that may become me because of Marcus's surprised look. I moved quickly down the ancient stone hallways of the Volturi Castle and made my way to the Main common room so I could make my way up the stairs towards my room and retreat into myself and avoid all vampiric contact because right now all I wanted to do is feel my brain smash up against someone's Central Nervous System and I wasn't feeling picky either. As I got to the main common room I slowed myself down in order to pass through without kicking up a fuss, the room itself was quite crowded with twenty or so bodies sitting in various couches and armchairs, talking and playing all sorts of games, I was nearly at the staircase, nearly towards safety when a figure stepped in front of me.

"You're moving quite fast, doing something you shouldn't?"

"Oh don't worry, be assured that I am behaving myself, but you on the other hand are doing something wrong"

"No I'm not" he said indignantly "It's my business to know such things"

"That may be so, but is it also you're business to question the comings and goings of your superiors?"

"I...uh.." he stammered "Your much too small to be my superior"

"Now that's where you wrong, see I'm a highly volatile three hundred year old vampire, who if in a bad temper, like I am, is not afraid to cause severe harm and distress, so ask me that stupid question again so I have a excuse to hurt you"

"Try me" he taunted "You're too small to cause any significant"

"Tell me" I said as I looked up and saw the same guard from earlier in the day "Do you know what it's like to be burned alive, because I do and I think it's time someone else knew what it was like" and with that I was picturing the pain I felt that night and translated it into the illusion that was my power and had the vampire on the ground yelling, screaming, writhing etcetera, etcetera. It wasn't until I heard a throat clear behind that I stopped and turned around and saw Alec and Arthur standing there amongst a crowd of vampires that had congregated around the scene.

"If you're quite finished" said Arthur and I cut him off before he could say anymore

"I don't want to hear you break-down the situation and bring it back to how I have repressed aggression that I find myself relinquishing in small doses" I yelled

"Well" he said quite taken aback "I was just going to ask if you had seen where I put that map" and after a bit of silence Arthur came out and said "but if you're interested in my theory I will happily say them"

"Your room" I said to Arthur

"What?" he asked

"Your room, you left the map in your room" I snapped

"Oh, thank-you, thank-you" and he dashed up the stairs as fast as his newborn legs could carry him

"And here I thought you weren't capable of having fun without me" Alec said and he giving me a huge smile "Thank-you" he said and he kissed me on the forehead "I'm happy that I was wrong"

"Oh, be quiet" I said as I saw a figure dashing from the stairs "Bye Arthur" I said and he turned on his heels to face me

"Bye, see you soon" and he darted off again

"He has to be one of the nicest, funniest and scariest vampire I have ever met" Alec said and I laughed.

"He sure is something" Then I realised people were still staring, so I put my mean face back on "Somebody take this fool to his room, he'll be out for a while" and then without warning I continued to make my way back to my room with Alec hot on my heels, when we got to the common room of our floor I burst the door open leaving t to swing wildly on its hinges nearly slamming shut on Alec

"What was that back there" he asked me

"A guard got a bit insubordinate, so I put him in his place" I answered

"No not that" He said frustrated

"Then what?" demanded

"You, you calmed down, just like that, I have never been able to do that, but Arthur did it and I want to know how"

"I don't know" I said "I don't even know that I am calm"

"Trust me, if I did what Arthur did you would have just resumed torturing when I was finished, but just now you stopped completely and told them to take the guy to his room"

"I just felt like it, I suppose, you know shaking things up" Alec just gaped at me when I finished talking and then fell back into the armchair behind him, and then began to laugh uncontrollably heaving his body up and down, and I knew what he was thinking

"Alec don't say it" I pleaded

"I have to, it's just been such a fine day" and I growled at him. Then to make matters Heidi burst into the room "What?" I snapped at her, still drilling holes into Alec's skull

"I heard laughing" she said in her accented voice "so I assumed something was wrong"

"It's not that Heidi" Alec said between bursts of laughing "It's just that it's such a fine day" Then Heidi's face looked shocked

"Get out" she exclaimed "Jane" She said sweetly as if I had given her a bouquet of flowers. I couldn't help myself I just ripped out a terrifying snarl and then stormed to my room. There just seems to be no hiding from this at all. I was in my room lying on my bed facing the ceiling hands clenched by my side and all the while a thousand thoughts of anger and hatred rushed in my head, until his face appeared in my head and I melted into a dozen sweet thoughts before I got angry at the sweet thoughts, it was a vicious cycle that after a few hours I didn't want to put up with anymore so I got up off my decorative bed and walked to my door as I opened the door I got a scent of just about all of the senior guard in the common room. I walked down the hall taking cautious steps, as I emerged from my corridor into the common room the entire senior guard broke out into song, singing the chorus from Puccini's opera ballad One Fine Day.

"One fine day, he'll find me a thread of smoke arising" My day just wasn't getting any better. I stormed out of the common room and down the stairs through the main common room where everyone in my path gave me a wide berth through the door and down the hallway, I was halfway to the front door when I decided I wanted to go for a drive to clear my head, so I turned around a ran towards the garage, I was at the door when I charged through and ran into a unsuspecting Arthur who was pushed backwards by the force of my impact and myself flying due to tripping over Arthur he managed to catch me before I could damage my clothes.

"What's got you in a hurry?" he asked me with an exasperated tone

"Uh, nothing, just my temper" He raised his eyebrows

"Should've known"

"I'm going for I drive so would you mind letting me go" and in a split second I felt his grip on my arms relinquish, but then my arms felt odd like they wanted more. But I told myself I was imagining it and I got up and offered him a hand he took and he stood up and then let go of my hand very quickly and then said

"I shan't keep you from the road then" and he walked through the door and then ran the rest of the way back to the dorms. I was left standing in the lonely garage with nothing but my thoughts, with the person that caused so much of my recent turmoil disappearing up the stairs; it felt wrong to say the least. I jumped into my Porsche and turned on the ignition and put it into reverse I backed out of my bay and moved towards the exit, being careful with my car in such a closed in space as I was driving out of the exit Aro was pulling in, he rolled down his window and I did the same.

"I want to see you in my study tomorrow morning" He said lightly but formally

"That won't be a problem sir" I replied and I rolled up my window and sped up flying out of the driveway and through the gates to the city speeding my way through the Tuscan landscape though I didn't notice much I could tell that the villa's and such perched on the various ridges and hills were alive and pumping with fresh blood. I must have been about half-way to Pisa when I caught the distinct smell of Vampire lingering thick in the air, I pulled my car over to the side of the road and I got out taking in a large sniff of air trying to gauge the direction and distance of the vampires, turns out they were in front of me by about fifty metres.

"Show yourselves" I demanded of the dark, I heard they're movement as they moved closer and eventually two figures stepped from the shadows and I recognized them as Vladimir and Stefan. "Vladimir and Stefan" I said cheerfully "This is most certainly a surprise, what brings you two so far south"

"Well" said the one I recognized to be Stefan "We were hoping on killing a few of the Volturi guard, but seeing you, well...we decided against it"

"Wise decision, but may I ask, what have you decided to do instead?"

"We have decided" declared Vladimir "To give Aro a message for us" I merely raised an eyebrow and inclined for them to continue "Tell him, that after his display in America that we will be watching him"

"Intently" said Stefan

"I will be sure to pass that on, and on a side note, I will be coming back here tomorrow and if I find you still here, I won't be as gracious and as forthcoming as I have been tonight"

"Don't fret Jane, you won't find us"

"I'll still be coming here, your word or not" And with that they disappeared back into the night, and I fearing that my night was ruined got back in my car did a u-turn and drove all the way back to Volterra.

It was about one o'clock when I arrived back at the garage beneath Volterra Castle I pulled back into my spot and got out; when I got out I found waiting for me by the door was Arthur when he heard me he looked up.

"So, when I got into the common room Alec was sitting there looking very smug and when he saw me he asked me how my meeting was all the while humming One Fine Day, deciding that I wouldn't want to be there, the song really making the decision for me I decided to come back down here and wait for you, because I felt our last meeting was rather discomfited" I smiled a little

"So you thought that by waiting for me, the unpredictable and hot-headed teen Vamp, you would save yourself a bit of unease"

"Not at all, I just thought it would be more worth my time and efforts to get on a friendly basis with said unpredictable and hot-headed teen Vamp" I walked towards him and he opened the door for me, after I walked through he followed me and shut the door and then offered out his arm "Shall we?"

"You're off to a running start" I told him

"Not a sprinting one?" he asked me jokingly with a huge grin on his face, I laughed and nudged him in the ribs.

"So tell me, what was your meeting about?" I asked him

"Well I drove half an hour to a unknown place dug out of the side of a cliff to get lectured to by Aro about Vampire society and culture, you know etiquette and the like, he told me the laws and then tested me on my ability"

"Really I asked, and how did that turn out?" I asked genuinely interested

"Well I managed to levitate a pencil before poking myself in the eye with it, and then I accidentally got an apple stuck in Aro's mouth and I couldn't get around to pulling it out and my power was shielding it so Aro couldn't bite through it"

"So what did you do about it?"

"I had to physically remove it"

"Sounds fun" I said sarcastically

"Oh it was, how was your drive, I noticed you're considerably more relaxed having come back from it"

"Well, I got a chance to excise some of my famed pent-up aggression"

"Do I get to know how?"

"Not until the morning"

"Thank-fully I have eternity to wait" And without warning we were outside the door to the main common room and once again, like a gentleman, Arthur was holding the door open for me again.

* * *

So I was considering giving you guys a cliff-hanger, but...it would have cut the chapter too short so I left you with a open ending that will leave you thinking whatever you think...but bear in my mind, things have to get worse before they can get better!

REVIEW!!! In a desperate attempt to fill my inbox!


	10. The Calculation

Nothing Ever Stays the Same

Chapter 10- The Calculation

Something changed, it wasn't my hair, it wasn't my wardrobe, in fact I don't know what changed all I know is that something changed, I feel it now when I walk when I talk when I relax and when I run. It's as if there is this anxious feeling eating away at me but at the same time there is a reassuring presence smothering the anxiousness for now. I haven't the time to worry about what worries me, people rely on me to do my job and make sure toes are in line, or else everything goes to pot because no one else will do my job, no one else is happy to be the antagonist of so many stories. I'm the anti-hero with dramatic purpose, I don't classify as a heroine, and I have long since gotten over my discontentedness about my lot in existence, but now I feel different, and I want different things.

My meeting with Aro was short and I think he registered my changing heart because he looked at me with concern as I left turning on my heels. The meeting itself was nothing interesting, we discussed new policy being instituted for the guard and well…that was it, I did tell him about running into the Romanians and he merely cocked an eyebrow and said "Not to worry" which if you have lived with Aro for long enough you know it is the most vague answer he gives, it's very nonchalant a promise of nothing at all, it's a worry for me to see, but I can only hope that he's seriously considering it. My mind now switched to thoughts of new policy, it meant a lot of things but the most concerning thing to me was free dress. It was official, Aro has changed dress policy for senior members of the guard, basically Heidi, Demetri, Felix, Corin, Afton, Chelsea, Renata, Santiago, Arthur, Alec and I all have to know wear casual and business clothes, this posed two problems for me, one is that I did not own much casual/business clothes and two, my lack of the appropriate attire would force me to go shopping with the girls, oh how I loathed shopping for clothes as a matter of fact the only shopping I like is food shopping, book shopping and music shopping nothing else, zip, zero, zilch but alas Aro changed the rules and as such I must obey, so I will go clothes shopping.

The dim hallways of the inner castle that flittered with reams of unnecessary candle light were baron and dead of life, as I made way through the Main Common room I was greeted with a dozen or so wary looks from various members of the guard who were giving me a wide berth when I reached the stairs to my room I smiled to myself because something's never change. I held this thought as I travelled up the stairs and as soon as I reached my door I bumped into Arthur and my thoughts immediately changed, because sometimes things do change and it's unclear whether their for the better or the worse.

"Hey there" he said clearly uncomfortable making two of us.

"Hi" I replied

"How are you?" He asked me awkwardly

"I'm just fine thank-you, yourself?" I replied

"Yeah, yeah, I'm grand"

"Good" I said looking down at my feet "You doing anything today?"

"I am, it's overcast so Alec and I are going to hit the town and stock up on some clothes"

"Don't remind me, I'm going to have to get around to that"

"Well if you go today, we might bump into you, after all, the city isn't all that big"

"That means your shopping in Volterra?"

"Yeah, I didn't feel like driving for an hour or so just for clothes"

"I wish I could get away with that, but alas I can't" at that precise moment Alec was at the door

"What's happening here?" He asked inquisitively

"Nothing life-changing" Arthur responded "You ready to hit the road"

"Definitely, I just love clothes shopping" Alec said sarcastically

"Don't say that or I might believe you" Arthur retorted "I'll see you later then Jane?" He asked me

"Most likely, we do share a common room" He chuckled half heatedly and gave me a crooked smile, his eyes were glistening and his slight dimples slightly more pronounced making him look more handsome.

"See-you later then Jane" Alec said and he kissed me on the cheek but I was to flustered to respond, Arthur kept catching me off guard the sly devil. I watched as they both disappeared down the spiral staircase, when I was confident that they had left I made my way towards a couch and sat down, there was so many new things going on in my life at the moment the most important being the introduction of Arthur into my sad little story and he made it look brighter, but I knew better than to believe that my happy ending would happen all of a sudden, or better yet, I knew better than to believe it would happen at all. My reverie was disrupted by two figures standing in my peripheral vision, one was tall and slender and the other was medium height and still skinny.

"Is it that time already?" I asked the shadows behind me, dreading what was about to happen

"Yes, it's time" said the voice of the tall shadow

"Well then" I said standing up and facing the statuesque figures of Heidi and Chelsea "Lets make it quick"

"You honestly think we were going to let you get away with it that easily" said Chelsea sweetly

"No" I replied bluntly "but I was hoping for mercy" I said as I began to walk out of the door when Heidi gripped me by the shoulders and began to guide me

"No rest for the wicked Jane" she said and I believed her.

There was no saving me I was a damned soul bustling about the hellish streets of Florence which in the day that it was reflected more of a personal purgatory, the overcast sky cast grey light across the marvellous city extracting from it's charm, the normally golden streets were dull and lacked colour as I was pulled around from shop to shop thrown around as if I was a rag doll, the shops varied and they only ever had one thing in common, designer, every single outfit they was picked out, every single shoe and every single piece of jewellery was designer and I'll admit, it frightened me to a late death.

"I don't know why you take this so seriously" I said out of the blue to Heidi "I mean it's not like I even want them" It was then in the full exposure of the city of Florence I regretted my comment, because as I said I was in the full exposure of Florence and I couldn't defend myself in the typical manner and that was the root problem because Heidi then turned around at me and gave me a poisonous look and I could taste the venom leaking from her every orifice and while she did not have my power I knew that if she did I would be writhing on the floor like Isabella Cullen would be for me if it wasn't for her precious little shield.

"Jane" Heidi said struggling to regain composure "I, believe that shopping is enjoyable but you, make it hard, you make it a chore so please just appreciate what I am doing for you and take this trip in good spirit or I will tell Arthur how you feel" I looked at her in shock

"How did you know?" I asked her

"Oh please, you aren't the only one with a power, and trust me the way your going I'm sure Chelsea will be glad to give you a push in the right direction…isn't that right cupid?" Heidi and I both turned to look at Chelsea who's bouncy girls were tilted to the left as she pondered the question

"Well" she began to answer is her sweet voice "I will, but I'm quite enjoying the innocent awkwardness that Arthur and Jane have going on, it's so cute" I looked at Chelsea hardly believing the words she was saying I was in a nutshell gob smacked.

"Look, what shop are you going to go to next?" I asked Heidi

"Burberry" she said "Why?"

"Well I was going to drop these bags off in the car for some space and then meet up with you, and seeing as you know my sizes off by heart it shouldn't be a problem"

"That might be a good idea, well see you soon" Heidi said before laying the dozens of bags filled with clothes on me and then ran off with Chelsea to the Burberry store.

As I made my way towards my Jaguar which is the car we chose to bring because of it's greater boot space. I loaded up the boot at a painfully human pace and I thought Arthur, what had Heidi meant when she threatened me I know how I felt about him and I knew that being in close contact with him was bad and I now knew from Chelsea's comment that that it was no longer a secret, it was obvious how I felt which meant that Alec knew, what would Alec think my oldest companion my brother by blood and invalid genetics, what would he make of my attraction, then the worst of all what would Aro think, my sire, my employer what would he make of this if word reached his ears, or mind, though he probably already knew he did have a meeting with me this morning in which he reached out and took my hand and thoughts for his own. Once I had loaded up the car I made my through the crowded streets of Florence catching the eye of many boys tourists and locals alike I suppose that, that is part of a vampires charm being attractive to all eyes the beholder not specified. I found the Burberry store and inside it I found them looking at the newest season of fashion released by the label.

"Jane" Chelsea said "Now that you're here we could use your help"

"Seriously?" I asked as I walked towards them

"Sadly yes" Heidi said and I shot her a look of evil

"Well how can I help?" I asked Chelsea while ignoring Heidi

"We need you to tell us which of these coats you prefer" she said gesturing towards a large collection of coats. I began to immediately rummage through the racks of jackets that Burberry stocked until finally I found one that I…liked…that can't be right, I wasn't a slave of fashion, but still there it was a jacket I liked, it was black and thigh length with a pleated skirt.

"This one" I announced my voice coming out in an entranced tone "I want this one"

"This one?" inquired Heidi "It's very nice, good choice Jane" and she gave me a raised eyebrow and a contained smile.

"I think I need to go" I said still with my entranced voice

"I'll take you to the car, I'm fairly sure we got enough clothes to last you for a while, as least by your standards" Chelsea said to me in a very matter-of-fact tone as she took my hand and escorted me out the door.

"What just happened in there?" I asked the starting of lucidity coming to my senses and annexing my anxiety and surprise.

"I think you offered a good opinion on a piece of clothing that you liked" Chelsea said frankly obviously as surprised as I am to see me in such a state

"I'm changing" I said ominously "I'm changing and I don't want to, I don't want to have romantic feelings towards another vampire, I don't want to become fashionable, it's not me I don't want it" I said seriously this time almost aggressive

"Jane, you were changed as I child, before you developed and I suppose you've finally grown up enough to develop new emotions…and change is good as long as you go with it let the current take and you'll find it takes you to somewhere better if you only open your eyes" she said philosophically and I looks at her puzzled "Simply what I'm saying" she continued "Is that your growing up and that you should frankly grow up"

"Oh" I said timidly

"The viciousness was never going to last forever" said the voice of Heidi not ten meters behind me "It's not as like anyone is ever pure of heart and it just took a person to change your perspective"

"But Arthur has never said anything of sort to me" I said

"He doesn't have to, it's more of a you want to be a better person for him and I'll think you'll find he's going through his own changes" I looked at her aghast at what she was saying "Oh for heavens sake child, not physical changes" my expression became sceptical "mental changes, emotional changes, however you wrap it"

"Right" I said

"I mean sure he probably is going through physical chan…" Heidi went on to say before I cut her off

"It's fine Heidi, really" I said "let's just get home, Chelsea will you be driving?" I then asked

"Sure" she said, and I could hear the amusement refrained in her mouth fighting to flick off her tongue.

* * *

A/N: I'm sorry for the ridiculous delay. I was going to make this chapter a bit longer but I decided against and I decided that you should have something instead of nothing...that is if you still want to read!


	11. Oh! Hark!

Nothing Ever Stays the Same

Chapter 11- Oh! Hark!

"Oh Bollocks" Arthur exclaimed as Alec, he and I stood in the main common room listening to the bad news that Aro was announcing, there was a slight murmur of agreed laughter from Arthur's exclamation, I slapped him across the head

"Behave" I spat in a whisper, and his only retort was an incredulous look

"Yes, people a ball" Aro continued "After our recent altercation in Washington, I think it would be sagacious of to host a ball for the vampires involved in the event, so as to make privy our willingness to modernize and converse our recent upheaval in out management and recoup our former popularity that was achieved with our more honourable day's" he looked around the room, probably not seeing the same thing I was, which was dozens of exorbitantly horrified faces of hardened vampires being told they were going to have to entertain guests for a night of well-mannered revelatory. "The date has been set and the invitations released I expect you all to be there in formal attire with your best foot forward" and with that he turned on his heel and with a feathery laugh he said "this is going to be so much fun" and then he left leaving forty or so vampires in a room all gaping, none of whom could find the right reaction to the news they had just received. Arthur stood up and looked at me

"As I said, Bollocks" and with that he went towards our common room leaving me there looking at him curiously.

"Don't worry Jane" Alec said to me "You could be falling for someone who isn't falling in return"

"Don't talk to me about falling, the only falling I'm doing is falling into a pit of angst" I said aggressively

"When will you learn that I am not the only person in the world capable of loving you" he said condescendingly

"But you're the only person I want to love back, I just don't think I can handle loving another person"

"Your not that emotionally stunted you know"

"Stunted, is that what you think it is, STUNTED" I yelled and Alec grabbed me by the arm and pulled me up the stairs away from listening ears

"Yes, I think your emotionally stunted, and I don't blame you, we don't know of anybody else who has survived what we have survived so we don't have anything to base it on"

"We didn't survive Alec, if we survived we would have died a long time ago" I pulled myself from my brothers grasp and I stormed up the stairs ignoring my surroundings until I reached our common room and I found Arthur lying on one of the antique couches one hand pinching the bridge of his nose and the other raised in the air with his fingers moving up and down in sequence as if he was counting "What are you doing?" I demanded in my temper

"Counting, how long it will take me to remove my savings from my account to a Swiss account and then out again to a new account"

"Why the complication of moving to a Swiss account and then out again"

"I would be easy to track the movement of the money from my current account to a Swiss one, but if I move it out then, given the privacy and security of Swiss accounts, it should be easy enough to just disappear, but given the risk I think I should just withdraw it from the bank as a hard currency and then place it in a new account"

"Afraid your parents will track you down?" I asked

"More afraid they'll get their hands on the money, which is a lot of money" he sat up now legs still on the couch curled up to his chest his feet only noticeable because if his black socks standing out against the white upholstery of the couch. I sat down in the space that was occupied by his legs only moments ago.

"I take it you have a poor relationship with your parents"

"Yeah, as soon as I was hitting my stride in school, being constantly moving up my parents put me up for adoption and they manipulated the whole situation so that in the event of my death before the age of eighteen that they inherit any of my earnings, my adoptive father didn't care all that much he earned enough money without anything I got, see my adoptive father was an academic and a professor of philosophy he saw my intelligence as a way of raising a child we wouldn't be disappointed in as I was showing so much presence and I don't resent him for it he sent me to all the nicest schools bought all the literature I could handle and had me tutored by the leading lecturers at his university in any subject I needed help in. In fact I loved him for it" Arthur took a long unneeded breathe and his face became morose "Then my parents caught wind of my popularity and tried to get me back first they tried the physical way, then they tried the legal, least to say after the physical the legal opportunity became very grim for them and that really confused me, I mean I was nine when they gave me up and eleven when they came back but my professor fought hard for me and we came out closer for it, he really was an ideal parent because he understood my intelligence and he nurtured it making sure that there was always someone a little smarter than me around to help learn, I mean at one point we had a physicist from Geneva at our house teaching me about particle physics and the lot, it was mental and then imagine everyone's surprise when I chose psychology, but when I told my professor that do you know what he did?" Arthur looked at me for the first time since he started reminiscing

"Brought you head cases to practise on?" I offered

"No" Arthur said "though that comes later, he got me every single book and study written by psychologists like Freud and Jung for me to read then he got me a neuroscientist from Mayo to teach me about the brain and it's intricacies, and it wasn't even my birthday or Christmas and that's when I knew that my new life was better than my old but then my professor got married to this absolute bitch of a woman" Arthur said the last bit carefully making sure to get as much malice and hatred out as he could "she didn't like me one bit, and to be far neither did I and she made my professor choose between us, a most cruel ultimatum and well he chose her and my professor was no longer mine and I was once again but up for adoption, but this time I would not be adopted by anyone I was left to myself until I turned eighteen and I would be forced out on my own as a legal adult who no longer needed love or care, it was sitting in the cold room of my orphanage that I wrote my first book my first theory to which I dedicated to the devil for only he can appreciate the irony of my position having most likely put me there and that's when I began touring with my book, arguing with foreign scholars and such, and then you found me in Belgium after I had finished entertaining a room of old fools and you seemed to keep up my thought and that is what drew me to talk to you" he finally finished with a shudder, like he was finally letting go of his tortured past, though he was never able to disappoint always managing to live up to impossible standards he found himself being constantly disappointed by the people that mattered most.

"Why did you tell me this?" I asked him, because it seemed as though it was a lot harder for him to talk about his human life then it would be for me to, since his was so fresh and mine wasn't even modern history.

"Because" he said "I've finally accepted this place as my new lot, and because of that I don't want to feel like a stranger anymore" I was flattered that he thought this place so pleasant especially after the cruel way we took him from his last and that he told me his story when I was the vampire who led him to his untimely and undeserved transfiguration

"Thank-you" was all I could say, he smiled an earnest smile and he stood up, put his feet in his shoes and then turned to me and put his hand on my shoulder

"My door is always open and ear always willing, should you wish to talk about anything at all it is my specialty after all" is all he said before he walked off down the stairs and off to who knows where and I sat in my spot stunned into silence and solitude.

"Jane" I heard a concerned voice call from near by but I didn't bother to look

"Yes" I answered

"Arthur said you might be like this, and told me come and talk to you if I didn't hear any movement for an hour"

"Did he say anything else?" I asked simply my mind much to occupied to proliferate my sentence

"As a matter of fact he did, he told you to get some air in Didyme's garden" I laughed internally

"Naturally, is that all?"

"Yes, miss"

"Then you are excused" the guard so unnerved at being so close to me while I was unstable was all too quick to follow my orders.

I decided to follow Arthur's advice and I went down to Didyme's garden, the garden itself was made after the death of Marcus's wife Didyme, she was said to be beautiful and she had a gift of making the people and vampires around her euphoric and not only was she Marcus's wife but she was also Aro's biological sister, the garden was made by Marcus himself after her death and he spends at least an hour there everyday. I myself had only been in the garden a few times, it is a beautiful place, made of entirely white marble filled with beautiful greenery and everywhere there was yellow, pink, white and violet flowers and in the centre of the garden was a white marble statue of Didyme crafted by Marcus himself, the statue sat on top of a pond that was always filled with the most crystal blue and clear water that I have ever had the pleasure of looking at. The garden was situated in the sunniest part of the exterior castle and no matter what time of day the sun was always shining making any diamond or vampire present sparkle gloriously as if there was no shame in sparkling. The pleasure of gazing upon the garden was reserved for a very limited few and that was because the garden was precious so the only members of the guard allowed in to the garden were senior members of the guard and that included me. As I made my way up the many flights of stairs required to go up to reach the garden I wondered how Arthur had come to know of it's existence, it was a few years before I was privy to the information and Arthur had only been here two days and he was telling me to go there, why I was to go there I didn't know but I trusted that Arthur knew what he was doing. I made my way down a hallway in the castle and then I found the painting of the garden made by Afton, who was Chelsea's husband, the painting was the door to the spiral staircase that led to the garden, it was a hidden passageway and the secret very heavily guarded. I reached the door at the top of the hidden staircase moments after I had made my way through the painting door, I opened he door and let the sunshine soak me and letting myself adjust to the sparkle of my skin before I walked out into the stunning garden.

It was as if my flawless memory had not done Marcus' handiwork justice, the garden was more beautiful then it had been the last time I visited, the garden itself was broken into three parts there was the left hand flower bed which stood raised and contained within a knee height white marble wall. The flower bed itself consisted of a low cut green hedge with behind a layer of white roses and behind that stood ornamental plum trees that stood in precise, even intervals along the flower bed which was approximately thirty metres long. Then there was the marble walkway which was split into three parts in itself, there was the plain white marble pavement which lay on either side of a glass panel under which water from the pond flowed down, like a river running from a dam. The right hand side of the garden there was a perfect symmetrical replication of the flower bed running down the left hand side, all the trees the same size and shape, the hedge the same colour not a twig of place and even the same number of flowers springing up in places. At the end of the thirty metre flower beds there was a ten metre gap in which there were four marble benches, two set at the end of the flower bed and another two placed next to the previous two put up against their closest wall, the benches looked as if they had been cut out of the marble which they stood against. And the end of the ten metre gap was a pond that ran the width of the garden and in itself it was another ten metres it was again made of white marble and the end of it was a wall that ran high. In the middle of the pond which was also the centre of the walkway was the statue Didyme, but not Didyme as she would have been seen by us but Didyme as Marcus knew her when he first met her, this depiction of a Greek goddess, her long hair falling in curls around her detailed face, a face that was smiling her cheeks raised and cold stone eyes seemingly glowing. Her dress looked like a bed sheet was fitted and wrapped around her delicate and slender frame and her dress moved in ripples until it touched the water. The wall behind her was a dull yellow render with Greek inscriptions running across it's berth inscriptions titled _In Memoriam. _

My appreciation of Marcus' garden was obscured by Marcus himself sitting in one of the marble benches situated in the garden but he was not sitting alone, next to him in all his post-nostalgic glory was Arthur, he was sitting there completely engrossed in whatever Marcus was telling him and he was also unabashedly sparkling like a polished diamond, his head, the chest exposed by the 'v' in his t-shirt and his arms from the cut in his t-shirt down to his fingers and though I had seen thousands of vampires in all their jewelled glory not one had ever striked as beautiful until this moment, he was so beautiful in the way the sun reflected of his multi-faceted skin as if an artist was using tonal shading to highlight the muscles and indentations of his body and it only succeeded in making him more appealing and there was something else, it was his face and the way the sunlight lightly sparkled over his slim face but then when he smiled how the sunlight caught off his raised cheeks and darkening in his dimples and was as if Da Vinci, Bernini and Michelangelo had all been raised from the dead and went to Ireland to sculpt this Adonis as an embryo, but of course such silly thoughts cannot be entertained, especially when Aro had access to such thoughts. But such bad timing on my behalf because at the point I stopped the much entertaining thoughts he turned and gave me the most venom warming experience of my cold life, I walked closer to the pair on the bench and I could feel myself beginning to smile as I got closer just sensing his presence just knowing that he is smiling to just made me feel warmth that I have never experienced and for once in my life I welcomed the warmth of the sun I let it fill me with happiness.

"We were just talking about you" Arthur said as I stepped toward him and Marcus and to my utter astonishment I saw that Marcus was as well smiling not as hard as Arthur was but for Marcus it was significant especially given the complete state of apathy he's been suffering for the past half millennia or so.

"Oh my, Marcus, what's changed?" I asked, my voice reflecting the shock I was internally subject to

"You changed Jane, for so long the relationships around me were so typical there was nothing new, so there was nothing for me to look forward to, nothing for me to feel, the reason I am still in existence is because you and Alec came and your relationship gave me this spur of life and then I met Edward and Isabella" I flinched at their names "and I felt a new hope that there was a light and indeed an end to my despondent tunnel and then there was what I felt at Washington when the Cullen's stood united as a family for that little half-cast and how the were-wolf was tied to the little girl through imprinting and it was then that I knew there was at the end, I was done with grieving and all it would take for me to see the end was a push of constant beautiful relationship that kind of a tie to release me" I looked at him, unsure of where he was going with this "and now because you found Arthur and though you may not know it you and Arthur are tied in a way that made me see the light, it feels like the kind of connection Didyme" he said as he looked at the statue of his love "and I had, it is pure and unrelenting love and it feels so beautiful it makes me feel free" he finished smiling at me obstinately.

"That's what we were talking about before you came up" Arthur chimed

"Oh, well that's nice I suppose" I said as I tried to process all the new information

"I should leave and let you two sort this out" Marcus said as he stood up "Thank-you, thank-you both so much" and he shook mine and Arthur's hand and he left disappearing down the walkway and through the door.

"So a connection" I said "Is that why I was told to come here?"

"No" Arthur said flatly "I told you to come here because this place is beautiful and is a perfect representation of beauty in the world and that's what I thought you needed, and after saying what I said I guessed you would view it somewhat differently"

"Well you were right, this place is truly stunning" I said "But what do we do about the connection?" I asked

"Do you want me to guess?" Arthur asked in retort

"Well your guesses have an awful habit of being right" I said

"I think, neither of us are ready for committing to each other to the degree Marcus senses so I think I should do something else first" Arthur said

"And what is that?" I asked as Arthur stood up

"Jane will you go to the ball with me?" he asked his red eyes looking into mine, my head swam and my motionless stomach heaved as I fought to get my answer out.

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A/N:And that's another chapter out and about for your enjoyment. I would love to see some reviews fr this chapter, just because I got slack doesn't mean I want you following my example.


	12. Bohemian Like You

Nothing Ever Stays the Same

Chapter 12- Bohemian Like You

"And what did you say?" asked Heidi excitedly, her eyes alight with exhilaration and passion at the announcement of Arthur's offer. As soon as I had given Arthur my answer I had hightailed it out of the garden and flung myself into the confines of Heidi's room, I had to tell someone and I was so excited at the thought that I had finally learnt why girls tell each other everything because for me their reaction was all I needed to know that I had made a good decision whether it be the right one or not.

"Well?" Chelsea insisted and I looked bashfully at my legs from my perch on Heidi's bed.

"Oh, save the look Jane, you came and told us that much now tell us the rest" Renata scolded

"Well" I started finally feeling like the sixteen year old girl I looked like "I, uhh, kinda, sorta said" stuttering, I was stuttering what has this boy driven me to, I looked around and saw the anxious faces of the three females closest to me and I decided they deserved to just "I said, yes" I finally managed to say with a innocent, shy and high pitched voice. Heidi gave out a dignified squeal and gave me a hug

"I'm so proud of you, you've finally learned to let loose" she said to me squealing a little more when she finished

"Well done, sweetie" Chelsea said as she gave me a head hug her curls resting upon my head as her arms wrapped around my head and she pulled me into her chest and rocked me slightly.

"This is so cool" Renata told me as she as well hugged me "two down, two to go"

"Thanks girls" I said coyly "I'm just not sure what I should do next"

"Might I suggest that you go and tell Aro, I have to be around him so this is not going to be unnoticed and I'm sure you'd prefer to tell him" Renata advised

"You're right I should tell him" I declared as I stood up from Heidi's bed "I'll do it right now" and I walked out of Heidi's room and saw Afton and Santiago sitting in the senior shared common room looking like they were about to break out laughing "If you breathe a word of this outside of this room until I tell you otherwise there will be a significant amount of pain for you, both" and I glared at them as I sped out of the room and down the familiar staircase only to hear Santiago drawling after me saying 'technically, we don't breathe Jane' to which I responded with a sinister growl, nice to know I haven't lost all my vicious.

A few minutes later after several stop starts, the whole 'no running in the house' child's rule severely dissipating the bravery I had for confronting Aro, I arrived outside of the Masters Common Room and I entered (the joys of being me) I saw Caius and Marcus in animated discussion and as I entered they both looked up and Caius smirked at me, his ancient and youthful face alight with deviousness and curiosity

"Been busy haven't we Jane" he taunted and I stopped so as not to be rude

"Caius, I'm quite sure I don't know what you mean" I replied curtly

"So Arthur was lying to Aro?" he queried

"I would highly doubt it" I said, my heart sinking at the thought word had gotten out by Arthur without my expressed permission

"Well then, enough of the straight face, let those emotions out Jane" Caius said

"In all respect, sir, releasing my emotions at the present may be disastrous and come off as some what unruly" I replied through clenched teeth

"If that is the case then it would be wise for you to talk to Aro then" I took the dismissal and moved toward Aro's study, I felt a presence behind me and Marcus made himself known I looked at him questioningly

"For moral support" he told me and we both proceeded down the hall to the study. Stopping to knock at the door I took a reassuring breathe and walked in Marcus in tow.

"I was wondering when you would turn up" Aro announced grimly "Have you made a decision?"

"Decision, sir?" I asked

"Yes, Arthur came to ask my permission to ask you to the ball, I am assuming he's asked you already?"

"He has sir" I replied

"And you're answer was?"

"I said yes, sir"

"Very well, take a seat" Aro indicated to one of the chairs in front of his desk "Marcus is there a particular reason you are sitting in on this meeting?" Aro asked

"I may be of use later on" Marcus answered simply

"Then you as well must take a seat" lightness returning to Aro's voice and Marcus took the seat next to me "You must understand my concern Jane, I am in a position that threatens one of most valued guards and my newest and most promising member, I do not wish to lose either you or Arthur, you especially but I must have confidence that this isn't a flimsy relationship that will threaten me losing one of you"

"I appreciate your concern, sir" I began "I realise that this is a trivial pursuit of judgement for you but I have the utmost confidence in a sustained and happy relationship with Arthur when the time comes to explore it" I said curtly and succinctly, as I knew floundering around on such a topic was a unavailing pursuit.

"Thank-you for your honesty Jane, but I am not willingly to take the risk" my heart sunk and my spirits depressed at his words

"This is where I come in use" Marcus said and Aro looked at his brother with a quizzing gaze "Your hand brother, and I will show you that there is no danger in letting such a relationship to be endeavoured upon"

"Very well" Aro said and he took Marcus' hand, his eyebrows raising and his mouth raising making his face one of immense joy and then he let go of Marcus' hand and looked back at me "My dear, such feelings, I cannot deny such a relationship that would be cruel" He said jovially the feather having returned to his voice, his somewhat translucent skin had returned to the natural pallor of vampires "This brings me great happiness, Jane, very much so, to see you finally find your soul mate is a blessing and to see my newest member being giving a solid reason to stay is almost as delightful to hear"

"I am glad you approve" I said curtly though I was tempted to make it sound mocking

"It is most certainly my pleasure dear child" Aro told me "You may go if you need Jane, and Marcus I must speak with you a minute alone"

"Excuse me then sir, Marcus" I bowed toward each and then made my way out of the study and toward the Masters Common Room which through a series of passageways led back to my common room.

"Free and clear" Caius asked from his seat

"Yes, free as a bird" I replied as I continued on through just wanting to get my hands around Arthur's pretty little neck and just squeeze until it shatters, go behind my back and tell my sire about some weird emotional connection between us, oh my, he will suffer. The violence in my thoughts was only cultivated by the time it took me to travel from one common room to the other. When I reached the door to the common room I found myself standing next to Arthur, "You!" I exclaimed to him, his calm exterior immediately became defensive and scared as he looked at me in terror

"What?" he asked in sheer panic, I was about to respond when I heard the voice of my brother Alec yelling inside of the common room, Arthur must have heard it as well because his panicked look became curious "Uh, do we go in?"

"I, think we should" I said quizzically and we opened the door to see the shit-head who kept giving me trouble standing nose-to-nose with my brother Alec.

"How dare you speak about my sister with that filthy tongue of yours" Alec said venomously

"I will speak however I want about whoever I want" he sneered

"Well then, I will make sure that I kill you ever so slowly" Alec spat

"Alec, enough" I demanded

"Oh, look it's your filthy whore of a sister" he taunted

"You son of a bitch" I said hate rolling off my tongue with ease, I could feel my mind twitching, just aching to reach out and torture but before I could do anything he was hurled across the room by an unknown force and then he started screaming, it was almost painful to watch, his screams were worse than what I could inflict on someone

"STOP" he yelled "it feels like your pulling me apart"

"It's because I am dip-shit" Arthur said snarling, and I saw him with his arm up and palm open pointing at him, Arthur had a fierce look on his face, so fierce it gave me a fright "Now I would shut your pretty little mouth from now on or I will pull you apart joint by joint savvy?"

"Yes sir" he said gasping "Just make it stop" and with that he dropped to the floor

"Next time you open your mouth, remember you are talking to because I will get Caius on to you, and we all know how angst-y he is" Arthur spat before he turned around to face me

"What was that about?" I asked with trepidation in his voice

"Short temper, I hope" he replied, surprise in his voice "Or maybe we aren't so different after all" I reply I merely raised my eyebrows at him, he looked around to see all the panicked and frightened faces in the room and he turned to Alec and I and said "If you need me I shall be upstairs" and in a blink he darted from his place and through the door to the staircase.

As soon as Arthur disappeared Felix and Demetri came through the front door, they looked around at all the stunned vampires standing around.

"What'd we miss?" Felix demanded

"Arthur" Alec said "Turns out he and Jane have sadism in common, though he's a bit more discrete about it"

"Alec" I scolded "Arthur as it turns out can use his telekinesis to torture people, but I don't think he's a sadist just extremely vengeful" I said in Arthur's defence

"And what, per say was he vengeful about" Demetri asked in suspicion

"He was, well, he" I tried to get out that he was defending me "was defending me" I said and cringed I refused to look at either Felix or Demetri

"I don't believe it" Felix said in shock, and all of a sudden the other vampires in the room, who stayed silent were starting to rouse

"Perhaps we should take this upstairs"

"Yes, lets do that" Alec said as he tugged on my shoulders and pulled me towards the staircase, Felix and Demetri followed us as we trudged up the stairs, we moved up them fast but I did manage to hear Felix telling the inferiors to 'look busy, Aro's coming' and with a quiet chuckle he followed us up the stairs.

We stood in the common room of the Senior Guard, which had housed Afton and Santiago, but they must have moved during the duration of my meeting with Aro, I was cornered by Felix and Demetri, my body heavy under their gaze.

"Little Jane is growing up" Felix exclaimed "I'm excited"

"But for the new guy?" Demetri enquired

"Oh My Maker, you two, can you grow up and stop acting like newborns" I rebuked

"Just saying is all" Demetri muttered "But in all seriousness, what happened?"

"You and you're fanged up plan, how very Bram Stoker of you, seduce the human" I yelled at Demetri "Couldn't come up with anything better, you just had to and get me to fall in love like some tragic little human"

"And you are angry because…?" Felix asked

"What do you mean?" I snapped

"You found your mate and yet you are angry about it?…sorry but that makes so little sense to me" He clarified

"I am angry because, I didn't want to find my mate, I was happy a lonely spinster"

"And you'll be happier now you have one" Felix argued

"That's not it Felix" Alec said, finally breaking his silence "She doesn't want people thinking she has emotions for anyone other than me" TRAITOR I screamed in my head, and my face betrayed my thoughts

"Oh" Demetri exclaimed "That explains everything" I hissed at him

"I don't have time for this"

"By the way Jane, you haven't formally told me" Alec said, Aw crap, I scolded myself mentally, thinking of all the people I have told and wondering why I didn't tell Alec "Don't worry Jane, Arthur asked me as well, said he valued me as a friend and that he ought to ask the closest family members permission, and might I say I like him, I approve" Alec didn't have time to breathe before I flung my arms around him in a large embrace.

"Thank-you, so much" I almost sobbed into him

"Will we take this very personal moment away from bad stereotype one and two" Alec asked me softly

"Please" I answered, and with a twitch of his rock-hard muscle he flicked me up into is arms and carried me out of the Senior Common Room.

Arthur must have been barricaded in his room because when Alec and I got to our common room it was empty and void of vampires, but my sensitive hearing picked up a panting in Arthur's room, I gave Alec a questioning look and then gestured for him to follow me down the hall. We approached Arthur's room quietly, the muffled growls reverberating from his room become more and more clear as the meters closed down, when we reached the door to his room we could here muttering in between the growls 'Oh God' was the most clear to make out along with 'Fuck' and 'What the hell is this'. I knocked on the door, three quick raps and the answer came

"Come in" Arthur managed in a highly strained voice and I opened the door and I saw an impeccably clean room with a extremely distressed and dishevelled vampire sitting in an upright foetal position in a chair by the window, Arthur's hair was untamed and the bags under his eyes deep and darker than they were minutes previously, then there was his eyes, they had become a very dark burgundy, so dark a human would call it black, and they were wild and desperate looking. "So, um, this whole thirst business was never really an issue, because you, Jane, took me out hunting after I was turned, the Aro took me out, and you too Alec took me out, but it would appear that in my deteriorating mental state that the level of control I had is fast declining"

"And why don't you ask someone to take you hunting" Alec asked timidly

"Because I'm afraid if I move I'll lose control of my already sporadic ability, and as I don't know my limitations I think it best to stay here and focus on that" Arthur responded in a trembling voice

"Alec" I said, my initial shock beginning to fade "I want you to stay here and 'sedate' Arthur while I go and see if there is any blood in the castle"

"Sedate him?" Alec asked "sedate him how?"

"Use your ability and suppress the pain, cut off his sense of feeling at let him get some control again"

"Right" Alec said as he took a shy step into the room and I turned to leave

"Be back soon" Arthur cooed and with that I sped off down the various tunnels and halls leading back to the Masters Common Room, I took a quick step in the door and saw Caius sitting there in his seat having not moved from the last time I was in here.

Caius gave me a appraising look and after a few seconds he settled on what expression to use, thankfully it was one of curiosity and not one of aggression, I don't think I had enough time to deal with one of Caius' moods today, though his expression of curiosity and not of aggression may have been due to the fact that his wife was sitting in chair opposite him.

"Sorry, Master Caius" I gestured to him "Lady Athenadora" and I gestured to her.

"What do you need?" Caius asked bluntly

"Caius, be polite" Athenadora scolded him "I'm sure whatever it is must be important, Jane is not the kind to enter a room so abruptly" and she turned all her attentions onto me, really when you get down to it outside of major confrontations like the one with the…Cullen's…recently Athenadora is really a fierce vampire, like one of those horribly cliché school headmistresses that everyone was scared of.

"Once again I terribly sorry, but I was wondering if we had any blood lying around in the castle?" I asked

"And why would that be important?" Caius asked me suspiciously

"Well, the newborn Arthur"

"Newborn?" Athenadora asked "shouldn't you be calling him you mate now"

"Possibly, but anyway, Arthur needs blood and he's afraid to move because he thinks if he moves he'll lose control of his power and well he's not entirely sure happen if he does lose control" I said as quickly but as clearly as I could

"I suppose it is a good enough reason, but what exactly is his power?" Caius asked

"Telekinesis, sir" I replied

"And where is he?"

"He's in his room, with Alec watching him"

"Right, well as it happens we do have blood lying around, just for such emergencies and I will bear no difficulty in giving you some but it will be on one condition"

"Anything sir"

"I would very much like to meet Arthur, I haven't had the pleasure, but my brothers have"

"That isn't unreasonable" I said "But could we move it along faster please, if he does lose control I don't think Alec will be much help"

"Athenadora, would you like to join us?" Caius asked his wife

"No, I have things that I must attend to albeit they aren't nearly as interesting as a telekinetic vampire with control issues, but I'm sure there will be plenty of times in the near future" Athenadora answered her husband.

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A/N: If you liked this chapter and want to see more, can you please review, just cos' no ones reviewed in a while and it's nice to know if you're work is appreciated!


	13. Soul Meets Body

Nothing Ever Stays the Same

Chapter 13- Soul Meets Body

A bit of blood works wonders for humans if they are need of a transfusion or if they need to keep a constant flow to keep then alive, but a bit of blood works miracles for vampires. In the short space of time in which Caius and I had given Arthur the blood, the bags around his eyes had gotten lighter as well as the colour of his eyes, they had gone from the sinister sangria to a more calming carnelian, his body had become less tense and his voice less strained.

"Thank-you again sir for the blood, an absolute mind-saver" Arthur said courteously for the twelfth time since Caius had given him the blood

"I was glad I could help" Caius said in a polite tone "and even more glad to have met you"

"Pleasure is all mine sir" This friendly exchange between Caius and Arthur had gone on for the course of Arthur's feeding, though it confused me as to the nature of this politeness from both parties and even more so Caius.

"Now I better be getting back to Athenadora, she'll be wondering where I am" Caius said as he arose from his seat "Goodbye Alec, Arthur and you Jane"

"Sir" we all replied and then Caius left the room swiftly, so it was just Alec, Arthur and I all convened in the room all of us unsure as to where to take the conversation.

In an instant Alec had stood up from his seat and begun walking to the door "Excuse me but I have duty right now" he said, duty being making sure all the baby guard don't make a scene of themselves while patrolling the city.

"Ok then, Talk to you later" Arthur said "And thanks for the help, most appreciated"

"Not a problem, just behave yourself" Alec replied and Arthur smiled in return, as he walked out he touched my shoulder and gave me a kiss on the cheek "Be seeing you later sister" and then he turned on the vampire and sped out the door leaving Arthur and I inhaling pure tension, not quite sure of what to do with ourselves now that we were entirely alone together.

"So, um, about before, I just want to sa…" Arthur began to say

"You don't have to say anything about that" I told him

"No I do" he said looking quite determinedly at the ground "I know that you are extremely capable of taking care of yourself and of fighting your own battles, but what happened before was a complete and utter accident I didn't mean for it to happen" when he finished he looked at me his carnelian eyes piercing through me and meeting me on an even playing field.

"What did happen?" I asked "You just came out of nowhere with that, and you looked like you were tearing him apart" my eyes were now locked in with his neither of us unable to withdraw our gaze

"I wanted to tear him apart" He said sullenly "For what he said, I wanted to watch him be torn into pieces" I was touched by what he said, he wanted to see someone hurt for me, that is the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me, so maybe this is what it felt like to be loved by someone other than a sibling.

"So what, you wanted to watch him be pulled apart and then all of a sudden he starts screaming, that's a little suspicious if you ask me" I said

"And I believe you, Telekinesis is described as the mental control of matter on a physical plane, so what if I have control over matter but only within the bounds of physical systems" Arthur proposed

"I think, that if that were true, then you would be able to separate peoples limbs, assuming of course that, that person is composed of matter""Which would be odd because Aro told me a gift in this life is a manifestation of a trait held in the human life" Arthur said, both of us becoming more comfortable with each other and falling into a rhythm of discussion

"You would have been a scientist, done experiments and everything of the sort, you know need more hands than you have" I said exasperated

"Oh, your right, and I'm also a bit of a musician so it could be from the desire to play multiple instruments at once, and besides who needs mind-reading when you're a psychology god" he added

"Well maybe not a god, but still pretty damn good" I countered with a smile and he gave me a wink in return "I think we need to test it out now, especially since you have a better idea of what you might be able to do"

"Should we ask Felix if he's up for some practice" Arthur encouraged eagerly

"Let's go" I said and he both bounded out of his room and through our common room in record time heading down the stairs stopping outside the other's common room and knocking on the door.

"Come in" called Chelsea's voice from inside, and we entered and we say that just about all of them were gathered in the common room playing scrabble, Arthur and I both stopped dead in the doorway, the sight too comical for us to comprehend

"Scrabble?" Arthur asked his eyebrow raised "really"

"Arthur" I chided "Felix could you join us in the training room please?" Felix looked at me, his eyes alight with pleasure and excitement

"With pleasure boss" he said as he got up

"Oh Jane" Heidi panicked "Before you go I just have to tell you that Chelsea, Renata and I have all got our dresses and just to let you know that; Temperley London, Roberto Cavalli and Jenny Packham have all been taken"

"Thanks for update" I told her and then I turned to Felix "You ready"

"Very much so" he said

The training room was really just a massive chamber several stories below the city, the purpose of the room was really self-explanatory and due to that purpose it was sparsely decorated with nothing but concrete walls and floors and a few fluorescent lights that hung in intervals on the high ceiling. The overall feeling of the room was an underground cavern that was easily fixed should training get out of hand, which it often did given that despite Chelsea's best efforts tension was still rife within the guard, but thankfully we had a way to ease it. There were a few little battles going on but as soon as Arthur, Felix and I walked in they all stopped and all the participants looked as us and retreated to the edge of the room, some whispering in voices so low not even my ears could decipher the utterances, Felix was grinning to himself and Arthur looked nervously around at the whispering vampires and I was dead focused at being the mediator making sure neither fight-loving Felix or newborn Arthur got out of hand.

"So Jane" Felix began "Why are we here?"

"We" I gestured to Arthur and myself "want to see what Arthur can do with his power" Felix smirked

"This sounds like my cup of blood" he said "ready Arthur" Arthur looked up at him slightly wary, Arthur was a bit taller than Alec but that didn't make Felix look small by any measure.

"Sure, lead the way" Arthur said timidly and he and Felix took the floor and I caught Felix muttering.

"It's moments like this that I miss Eleazar" and I laughed to myself because back in the day Eleazar did all the training of vampire gifts. Arthur and Felix were now stood in the centre of the cavern twenty metres apart.

"Arthur" I called, and he looked at me "Push Felix backwards twenty metres" and he nodded and then looked dead on at Felix and then with a sudden 'whooshing' sound Felix was airborne and flying backwards and he landed precisely twenty metres from where he was standing, I smiled internally "Now push him twenty again, but this time Felix try and fight it" they both nodded and they started again, I heard the same 'whoosh' sound and I saw Felix straining his face and then flying backwards again, he landed flat on his back and I saw some cracks on the side of his face, once again perfectly twenty metres from where he was before. "How does that feel Arthur?" I asked

"Perfectly natural, though I want to try something that may require some more finesse" He replied to me "Felix, are you alright?" Arthur called

"Smashingly" Felix grunted and he started to get up

"Don't get up" Arthur said hastily.

In my peripheral vision I saw the worried faces of some of the Volturi due to the fact that the biggest member of the guard had just been thrown around like a rag doll by the power of some newborn's mind, I was gloating in their faces so much I paid no attention to the vampire that rushed out of the room panic screwing her face. I turned my attention back to Arthur and I noticed that he had a hand out now copying a lifting motion, then I saw Felix's body lift completely off the ground by thirty centimetres and then his hand mimicked a pulling motion and Felix's levitated body complied and moved in towards Arthur at a pace of ten kilometres per hour he then stopped at Arthur's feet and Arthur copied and lowering motion and Felix's body dropped gently to the floor.

"That was awesome" Felix said from the ground. Arthur then took a step to the left and flipping motion with his hand and Felix's large mass heaved up and a second later he was on his feet, dazed completely unsure of what just happened "That wasn't awesome, warning next time" Felix chided Arthur

"Sorry" He said giving Felix and trademark smile and wink. We carried on the power training turning into fight training, Arthur proving to be a natural, integrating his power into his fight sequences so naturally. My favourite was when Arthur went for a slide tackle and Felix pounced over him, so in mid slide Arthur pushed his hands in the air and Felix went flying 50 feet in the air then Arthur pulled him down so fast I thought he would shatter, but in complete control stopped Felix dead a foot above the ground, it was funny to see Felix cringing as hardly as he was.

All was going so well, we even drew a crowd of about fifteen vampires including Heidi and Demetri until Aro came storming in a expression of pure ferocity on his face, Caius was two steps behind him looking equally as ferocious and followed up by Marcus who had an expression of focus as if he were trying to smell out a rat.

"Where is the person who was guarding the eastern wall this morning" Aro yelled, and then a timid female vampire stepped forward looking beside herself with fear

"It was me, sir" She said as she stood before Aro, Aro looked at her with unrivalled contempt

"Did you know" he said to her "that when you were supposedly guarding the eastern wall this morning that a unknown vampire crossed into the city on the eastern side and came inside the castle" He said, his voice soft but with noticeable strain.

"Yes sir" she replied and with those words what was left of Aro's control disappeared

"You knew, did you let them in" his voice slowly rising, fury climaxing

"Yes sir"

"_Bagascia_" He screamed as he slapped her across the face, shards of her spraying the onlookers "Who were they?"

"Romanian" The girl whimpered "were?" she then asked

"A fine example of a loyal Volturi guard ended them" Caius spat at her, her face then sank as she took in the information, her face curled into a furious glare and she jumped at Aro, the onlookers were so taken a back, as was Aro himself and he couldn't stop her onslaught she began pounding him for the first time cracks appearing on his opaque skin but before anyone could jump her she was hurled into the air away from Aro then she was frozen in mid-air and I saw Arthur's arm outstretched in front of him, his eyes stuck on the frozen body in the air.

"What would you like me to do with this?" Arthur asked Aro in a cold and steady voice, Aro was standing up the fractures on his face were starting heal

"End her" Aro snarled viciously Arthur nodded

"Certainly" Then Arthur's hand that was slightly curled spread wide open, then there was a ear splitting wail and slow cracking and I noticed a cruel smile split across Aro's face and then there has a final agonizing howl and then there has silence, I looked up and a saw a completely dismembered body that was continuing to break up into smaller pieces "Afton" Arthur said, and then from the back of the crowd Afton moved forward, his smooth face showing apathy as he as well raised his hand and the remains of the girl combusted and reduced to nothing.

"Let this be warning, for any others of you considering treachery" Marcus announced "Now all of you, except for the upper regiment go back to your rooms and wait for instructions" Everyone cleared out except for Afton, Alec, Arthur, Chelsea, Corin, Demetri, Felix, Heidi, Renata, Santiago and myself, we formed and semi-circle and waited for our masters to tell us what to do.

"It appears" Aro began "that we underestimated the Romanians and as such I want to implement precautions for us, for starters I only want trusted members on patrol and any journeys outside of the city will be supervised by one of you to ten of the others, Demetri I want you to keep tabs on the Romanians I want to know where they are, Arthur after today you have seemed to developed a reputation amongst the inferiors so I want you to baby-sit them with Felix and Jane. Corin and Santiago I want you to monitor phone-calls, e-mails and whatever else and I want you Heidi to be joined by Chelsea and Renata whenever you go hunting" he finished and we all nodded "As of now this castle in on totalitarian lockdown and I want Gianna taken off the desk and given to the wives and I want you Alec manning the reception" And he, Caius and Marcus all flittered off and left us all standing there.

It was two weeks later and the stringent regime was still intact, Alec much to his dismay was still manning the reception and both Arthur and I were still baby-sitting the guard much to our dismay, though it wasn't all bad during the course of the two weeks Arthur and I had bonded and we were now more comfortable with each other, happy as we were with things at a distance we both understood that one day the steady easy-going relationship would dissipate into serious love, we hugged, we held hands and not that anybody would know but we go out to Didyme's garden and snuggle on a bench and we talk, just talk, he knew more about me than anybody else did and I knew more about him. He was starting to break down the walls that I had long since put up, but only he and Alec were privy to my soul, to my heart. Arthur's skill in fighting and using his power had dramatically increased since he and Felix often opted to baby-sit down in the training room, he was now capable of fighting with a skill level above that of most of the guard, though he couldn't beat Felix without his power, his eyes had also diluted and he was progressing on from the newborn stage quite hastily, he said it was because he had something other than blood to live for though he still drunk and he drunk often, he just wasn't as crazed about it. We had been hearing mutterings about the Romanians assembling an army against us, and we weren't too sure how true that it was, though the rumours had come from a reliable source, we found it hard to believe that anyone would form alliances with the Romanians, most vampires couldn't stand them.

It was late afternoon one day about two months into the regime, things still much the same though we had a new vampire manning the desks and both Corin and Santiago had eased up on the trafficking of mail and phone calls from the guard Arthur and I were just about a fully legitimate couple and he and Alec were full blown brothers that Aro called Arthur and I into his office.

"As you two know the ball is going to be on in three months" he began "and I have decided that in the spirit of friendship that I would ask the Cullen's and all their allies to join us for the celebrations"

"And that means?" I asked flatly

"I want you two to go to Forks and deliver the invitation in person and extend it to all of their allies" He said cheeringly

"They might assume it's a trap" Arthur added

"But they have to just read your thoughts or see into the future to know that it isn't" Aro countered

"When do we leave" I asked

"Tomorrow, and just so you know Alec and Corin are going to cover for you while your away, and report back to me on Renesmee's growth I am ever so curious"

"Yes, sir" Arthur and I answered in sync and Aro smirked to himself. Arthur and I left and as soon as we were in the corridor Arthur slipped his hand around my waist and pulled me in the direction of Didyme's garden once we were sitting down he looked at me

"So we're going to see the Cullen's" he said aloud and I gave him a weak smile in return, and he nudged me playfully "are you going to be ok?" he asked in concern

"Yeah, I should be" I replied "With you there, there will be no reason for little miss shield to be so smug" and Arthur laughed.

"I'll come up with a plan to make it easier on them and us, we'll make sure that its quick and get home in a week" a smiled and leaned into him and he kissed the top of my head as we watched the sunset over the Italian landscape, our skin glittering brilliantly in the sharp sunlight.

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A/N: So I tried to make this a interesting chapter, putting as much as I could into the chapter...and we have Cullen's next chapter so I hope that goes well. Don't forget to review!


	14. Fight Song

Nothing Ever Stays the Same

Chapter 14- Fight Song

I was loading my things into the back of Arthur's Jaguar, my suitcase and my Jimmy Choo tote that was my carry-on luggage next to Arthur's suitcase and his laptop case that was his carry-on. Speaking of the devil, he was hunched over the engine of the car talking to Santiago.

"So that just goes on there like that when you are finished" Santiago said in his South American accented English

"Right, Thank you for that" Arthur told him

"Never a problem, I am happy to help" Santiago replied "Have a good trip to the Cullen's yes"

"Hoping for the best" Arthur said wryly and Santiago chuckled

"See you in a few days"

"Good-bye Santiago" I said with finality and Arthur looked up at me as Santiago left .

"You look good, what's the occasion?" he flirted

"You told me we have to get on their good side, and the female Cullen's love clothes and fashion so I may as well dress up" I replied flatly

"So it's not for me?" he asked cheekily and he took me into a hug

"Maybe a little" I said bashfully and he laughed, I think I looked pretty I just threw on some expensive looking clothes and my favourite jacket. It was a light blue silk jersey top with cherry blossom embellishment, coupled with some Alexander McQueen wet look skinny jeans and some grey ballerina flats, I had my hair up in a bun and my Volturi crest was tucked into my top. "Remember the flight plans?" I asked him my head still buried in his chest

"Yeah, Florence to London, London to Seattle with a flight time of eighteen hours" he said as if ticking off a list in his head "Still wish Alec was coming, just in case"

"You'll do just fine, besides human blood at low pressures is foul, it's why we hunt on the ground" and I heard him laugh again. We parted just in time for Aro to come through the door of the garage with Alec with him in tow.

"Ah, here you are" He said in his complacent voice "I've got your tickets and passports" He said waving around two travel packs, Arthur walked over and got them "Thank-you sir" he said as he took them in hand, Alec walked over to me and gave me a hug and a kiss on the head

"See-you soon sister"

"Missing you already" I told him

"Take care of Arthur, I like him" He said in a casual manner "And don't get into too much trouble"

"Say's you" I said and we moved from a hug to an embrace holding our foreheads against each other, and I noticed that neither Arthur or Aro were looking at us, I was grateful for that, we let go and I gave Aro a timid little wave and Arthur and I got into his car, we backed out slowly and then drove through the cavernous garage to the gate.

When we got to the gate our 'favourite' vampire was guarding the door Arthur stopped next to him and rolled down his window.

"When we get back in a week, are Jane and I going to have any trouble from you about getting in?" he asked in a low threat

"No sir, no trouble at all" he replied stiffly

"Good" and with that we tore off down the narrow ally and through to the main city entrance, we hit the large stretch of road outside of the city and I was still dark, our flight left at seven fifty-five and we did have to be there two hours early, and it took about two hours to drive to Florence so in all respects it was the middle of the night when it was actually three in the morning and we would be arriving in Seattle at four forty-five in the afternoon local time. So with the long stretch flight ahead of me I hoped I wouldn't get too bored on the flight.

It was a overcast day when we touched down in Sea-Tac Airport in Washington, Arthur and I immediately grabbed our luggage from the carousel and made our way to the secure parking where Aro had a company vehicle parked. The vehicle as it turned out was a Mercedes-Benz S-Class, so Arthur and I loaded it up and drove the eighteen and a half kilometres from the airport to our hotel which was the Fairmont Olympic Hotel, very luxurious and Aro put us in the Cascade room and the concierge was giving both Arthur and I funny looks as he lead us to the room which thankfully had two beds, as close as Arthur and I had become I doubted that he was ready to share a bed and I knew that I wasn't ready either.

"Tell you what" Arthur said to me out of the stony silence in the room "Being a vampire makes long-distance travel a lot breezier" and I smiled

"I never did get to find out the difference, back in my day it was by horse or by foot" I said "but the difference between that and cars is hugely significant"

"Would you like to call the Cullen's?" he asked "Or I can call them" he suggested

"No, I'll call them, as much as I don't like it, they know me" and I pulled out my phone and dialled the unfamiliar number that Aro had given me, it began to ring and then it was picked up, there was plenty of background noise, the sound of an active coven with shape-shifters and half-breeds

"_Hello, Carlisle speaking_" came the voice of the leader over the receiver

"Hello Carlisle, this is Jane" I replied and then there was a stony silence over the other end all the activity had come to an abrupt stop.

"_Jane?_" Carlisles voice questioned

"Yes, Jane of the Volturi"

"_How can I help you Jane?_" The voice asked me curtly

"Its time we caught up with you and your family" I said to him " So I am proposing that you meet me and a new vampire Arthur at the Fairmont Olympic Hotel Restaurant at say seven tomorrow evening?"

"_That seems more than reasonable Jane, would you like the whole family to come?_"

"I would, but don't feel obliged to bring the shape-shifter and if you do make sure he wears clothes" I told him

"_Well thank-you for the call I appreciate it greatly_" Carlisle said

"Your very welcome Carlisle, and I'll see you tomorrow, the booking will be under Corcan"

"_Have a good evening Jane_"

"You too Carlisle" and he hung up and so did I, I looked at Arthur and he went over to the rooms phone and dialled for the front desk.

"Yes, this is the Cascade suite" there was muttering in the receiver "Yes, I would like to book a private dining room for ten" more muttering "no, no a meeting room is perfectly acceptable" again with the muttering "no, I'm very sure, I don't want to book out the entire restaurant, the meeting room is grand, no, no ,no, no the meeting room please" I couldn't help but laugh at Arthur's struggle with the reception "Oh do not make me come down there, I said the meeting room will be fine" the receiver was silent for a second before the chattering kicked up again "Yes, and book that under Corcan" I thought that, that was the end but to the comedy of the situation it wasn't "No, Volturi is my partners surname mine is Corcan" I began to notice Arthur's accent become thicker has he became angrier, I decided to help him out so I held out my hand and he gave me the phone without hesitation_._

"Hello, this is Miss Volturi" I said sweetly into the receiver

"_Ah, Hello Miss Volturi, there seems to be an issue with the booking_" said the American female "_Your partner is wanting to book the room under Corcan, but that just isn't possible_"

"I fail to see how that isn't possible" I said "It's just a booking name for a room, I mean after all the nitty details will be the same as what is used for this room"

"_But, Miss, I must say that it would be easier_" the voice pleaded

"Easier for who, you? My partner and I would like the name for the booking to be Corcan because we have business with people who are familiar with Corcan" I scolded

"_Yes, Miss, the booking has been made under Corcan, that was a meeting room for ten, yes?_"

"Yes, that is correct" I said "Thank-you for your help, have a good-night" and I hung up the phone "And that is how you deal with dim-witted humans" I said to Arthur

"Just because I'm a psychologist by trade doesn't mean I'm a people person" he rebuked "Can we hunt? I'm burning up here" he then asked

"Sure, just let me change" and I walked into my room and picked threw my suitcase on my bed and sifted around looking for something appropriate for hunting, then I found it, it was just a t-shirt a cardigan and a pair of jeans but it would offer the comfort I needed for hunting. Once I had changed I walked out to Arthur who too had changed, he had swapped his fashion shirt and jeans for a different pair of jeans, a cheap pair he picked up at the airport and a v-neck t-shirt, he threw on his leather bomber jacket and he looked drop dead gorgeous, he eyed me and then asked

"What are you in the mood for? Vegetarian, Rich, Poor?"

"I feel like getting someone fit and lean, so lets stalk a gym or something" I replied and he flashed me a devilish smile and offered his hand

"After you miss" and he walked out of the room and strolled down the various hall-ways and stairs until we hit the streets.

We immediately made a turn for a dark secluded ally, climbed the side of a building and then darted across the rooftops in search for a gym, at full vampire speed it took us five minutes to find a well stocked gym. When we got there we saw a couple leave the building a very lean and well muscled figure of a man and next to him a well bodied lady Arthur and I watched them carefully as we saw them turn up an ally, bingo. We pounced from our spots and followed them, we jumped over the poor couple and then stopped and turned around so they could see us, as soon as they saw us the man was sizing Arthur then he decided that he could take him on and then the lady did the same to me.

"Shall we do the heterosexual thing, darling?" Arthur asked me

"We shall" I replied and then we pounced on our hapless victims, I drained that man dry as I could his body limp in my hands, he barely put up a fight and that irritated me slightly. Once we were finished Arthur came over a took the mans wallet and watch and anything else of value and I noticed he did the same thing for the girl the he pulled out a knife and made a large incision on their necks where my teeth had been making look like the man was stabbed then he gave him a few bruises and stuck a drip needle in his arm.

"What's this about?" I asked him

"Well, I don't want to have to dispose of the body in a river or somewhere like that so I thought I would make it look like a mugging where the victims were also drained of their blood for money" he explained to me

"Might work, but I think we should keep an eye on the news just in case" I told him, "humans and their forensics might see something different". When Arthur had finished what he was doing we jumped up and landed on the rooftop of the nearest building, just in time to hear a woman screaming below us.

"That was close" Arthur breathed, and then we set about scaling the rooftops back to our origin ally next to the hotel.

"Don't pull that again, we have our own methods that have worked for centuries" I scolded Arthur "And it is because they work that we don't change them, or use something else"

"Well, in that case I'm very sorry I deviated" He apologised "I won't do it again"

"Good" I accepted harshly "Now let's get back in the room before anyone notices""Actually, you go ahead, I'm going to pick up some food" Arthur told me

"What?" I snapped

"We went out for food, and it would strange if we came back with nothing to show for it" he explained "So there is a Thai place down the road, I'm going to go and pick something up" and before I could stop him he was gone so I settled myself with rolling my eyes and walking back to the hotel.

The next morning the sun was concealed behind the misty sky, it meant that Arthur and I could go out and not be seen for what we are, not that anyone would guess we were vampires from the fact we glittered. I walked out of my room fully dressed for a day out, I was wearing this orange and white striped, silk and chiffon dress with some leather-ankle-sandal-boot things with my coat hanging on my arm. Arthur was sitting in the intermediate room reading the paper with a tray of untouched breakfast for two in front of him on the coffee table.

"We didn't make the news" he told me "Though I concede it was risky doing what I did"

"You've apologised for that already" I said

"That wasn't an apology, that was an assurance" he looked up at me "Going somewhere?" he asked

"Yes, and you're coming too" I announced, Arthur looked a little confused at the declaration

"But it's daylight" he said nervously "as in sparkle time"

"The sun is completely obscured by cloud cover which means we won't sparkle" I informed him "which means shopping time" Arthur looked slightly bereft at the news

"And I only find this out now?"

"I didn't need a shopping partner before" he raised an eyebrow

"Well let me get changed" he said as he stood up and put the paper down "could you clean this up?" he pointed at the tray of breakfast

"Not a problem, just hurry up" I cleared up the mess of food quickly opting to throw it all down the toilet, leaving a few scraps and by the time I was finished Arthur was out and changed wearing a collared shirt with a sweater on top, jeans and a pair of dress shoes and he also had a coat draped from his arm, his hair was messed, but it suited him I'd even go as far as to say he looked attractive.

The shopping in Seattle wasn't as good as it was in Florence, but who was I to comment, I only got into the whole institution of fashion a few months ago when Aro told me to. But the clothing I found was fairly average, nothing stood out and I was glad I had Arthur because he gave constant advice that really did help, being a vampires we had impeccable sense as to what colours matched what. By the end I had settled with two dresses with shoes and bags to go with them, it could have been more but Arthur talked me down, as it turned out he was useful for something, once we had my dress sorted we went out to find Arthur's outfit, the ball might no have been for a few more months but this was free time I was not going to waste. The sun was setting by the time we had finished, or I had finished and we made our way back to the hotel in order to prepare for tonight. When I was back in my room, with my procurements safely stored in my bag I begun dressing for tonight. A black Robert Cavalli Turtleneck dress with a black Burberry trench, black Jimmy Choo pumps and black tights.

"Remember we're representing the Volturi tonight so nothing but black" I called out to Arthur

"I know" he groaned back I laughed internally, he must still be getting used to the whole uniformed organization silly academics. I walked out into our middle room and saw Arthur waiting for me, he looked rightly dapper in a black pin stripe suit with a black shirt and a black tie and a black Burberry trench, his hair was brushed back and looking tame. He looked at me his mouth begging to drop but his mind forcing it shut, he then pulled himself together and gave me a huge smile, his eyes glittering like his skin in sunlight "Its, its uhh, six-thirty I think we should get downstairs" he said.

"I think we should" I flirted and he took it in stride and just winked at me and we walked out of the room together.

I was waiting in the lobby for the Cullen's to arrive while Arthur was in the meeting room getting drinks ready. I saw them before they saw me and I walked over to Carlisle and his wife Esme and they turned and looked at me, less nervous that they saw that I was on my own, Arthur's plan seemed to be working splendidly.

"Good-evening Carlisle" I said as I acknowledged him with a nod, the rest of the coven turned to look at me "I trust you and your coven had a good trip up here"

"Jane, good to see you again, and yes our trip was just fine" Carlisle responded curtly "Where is your partner?" he asked, his soft voice bringing memories of Aro to the surface.

"He's in the meeting room waiting for us, so we best not keep him waiting" I addressed the coven at large "Follow me" and I walked off leading them to the room. I stopped outside the door and addressed them again "Remember that Arthur is only a few months old so he won't be all that patient with you unless you co-operate"

"And why should we be afraid of that?" The big, curly haired one asked

"Because, Emmett, I doubt that even I would beat him in a fight, not that I'd be stupid enough to try" I told him in my authoritative tone and I gave him a grave look before I turned and opened the double doors. Arthur was sitting down at one of the tables heads holding a glass of blood, his legs crossed, when he saw us walk in he put the glass down and stood up "Cullen's this is the Volturi's newest addition, Arthur"

"Such a pleasure to meet you all" Arthur said in a friendly voice that seemed as if it was restricted to friendly and not sympathetic, and he walked over to take each of their hands, he got to Carlisle first

"Carlisle" the blonde said and Arthur shook his hand with vigour and he moved on

"Esme" the petite matriarch said and Arthur kissed her hand

"Jasper" the lean blonde said and Arthur took his hand

"Alice" the spiky black haired clairvoyant said spritely and Arthur kissed her hand

"Rosalie" the arrogant blonde said and Arthur kissed her hand, if a bit reluctantly

"Emmett" the burly one said and he shook Arthur's hand while sizing Arthur up

"Edward" the annoying bronze haired mind reader said as Arthur shook his hand

"Jacob" the dog said and Arthur shook his hand, his face cringing a little

"Isabella, but call me Bella" the extra-annoying shield said and Arthur kissed her hand, he then turned to the half-breed in her arm

"And you" he said "you must be little Renesmee" he said as he took her little hand and kissed it, the girl giggled

"Pleased to meet you" she said in her high soprano, and Arthur looked thoroughly amused at the child.

"Well now that we are all acquainted take a seat and we shall begin" Arthur said as he moved back to his seat.

* * *

A/N: I was going to make this chapter longer, but I decided against it, and now you get two chapters with Cullen's...for now. If you enjoyed it, review it...please


	15. Know Your Enemy

Nothing Ever Stays the Same

Chapter 15- Know Your Enemy

"I took the pleasure of getting you some animal blood" Arthur said as he gestured to two bottles of blood on the table "I hope you like, because I went with the one that smelt the least foul to me"

"That's very gracious of you" Esme said quietly from her seat and Arthur smiled at her

"Or you have the offer of human blood" I said

"No thank-you Jane, we best keep to our diet" Carlisle told me as Esme poured the rest the family their drinks "Do you have anything for Jacob?"

"Oh yes" Arthur said as he went to the small bar fridge and pulled out a glass bottle of something black and poured out a glass for Jacob who was cringing away from Arthur.

"Very well" I replied "First order of business is Renesmee"

"Yes, we assumed so" Carlisle said "Though we are curious as to why, after all so soon?"

"Yes, I know" I said firmly "But certain circumstances made it convenient for us to check"

"Ok then, what do you need to know?" the shield said to me abruptly

"Well, I suppose what are her mental facilities?" I asked

"She develops quite quickly, she is reading at a university level and she is able to decipher the meaning behind the texts and make intertextual references" Edward said to me

"What of ethics and the rules" Arthur asked

"How do you mean?" Edward asked him

"What I mean is, is that Aro classifies her as a vampire and as such she should know the rules we enforce and the ethics of being a vampire" Arthur explained "While I didn't expect you to know Aro's decision, it was assumed that you would teach her, or did you think differently?"

"We didn't" the shield interrupted "But we decided it might sink in a bit better if we didn't tell it but showed it"

"Then clearly you aren't addressing your child's best interest" Arthur said bluntly "because if you were, you would be doing everything to make sure she lives a long and happy life, because despite our impressions that is what we want"

"You don't know what you're talking about" the wolf yelled at Arthur, standing up and knocking his chair down, it wasn't until I went to inflict upon him that I realised Bella had the shield up, I gave Arthur a warning look and he nodded ever so slightly.

"Jacob, would you please sit down?" Arthur asked patiently

"No, you have no right to tell us how to parent Nessie" Jacob yelled

"And what makes you say that?" Arthur asked, again patiently

"Because you're a baby yourself, and you know nothing" Jacob spat, and I knew automatically that this was a sore spot for Arthur because Arthur could stand any slur thrown his way except for slurs about his intelligence

"Listen dog" Arthur spat back "In my human life I got more degrees and qualifications then you and your Neo-Palaeolithic mind could accumulate in a thousand years, so sit down" he yelled the last bit and Jacob looked defiant still and remained standing

"Jacob, please sit" the shield said and then he sat down but remained glaring at Arthur

"Excuse me?" Carlisle asked Arthur "but you wouldn't happen to be the psychologist Arthur Corcoran, would you?" Arthur turned to the good doctor and smiled

"Yes I am, its good to know someone recognises me" and he shot a look at Jacob, and Carlisles eyes lightened a little

"I am quite fond of your work, it was really quite fascinating" Carlisle said to him

"In a good way or a bad way?" Arthur asked in good humour, Carlisle put his hand on Arthur's arm

"In the best of ways" he praised. Before the comfortable exchange good continue I cleared my throat and Arthur gave me the 'I'm-in-the-middle-of-something' eyes and then pulled away.

"So what I was trying to say before is that, the best way to teach her would be through reading to her and so forth, because she has a good head and the best way for the intricacies to settle in would be to tell it, but I completely understand if that is not the way you want to do things"

"Thank-you for the advice" Edward conceded "We will take it into full consideration" smart-boy, I thought to myself

"What about physically?" I asked "There is an apparent concern that like a newborn her strength may overpower her control of bloodlust" This time Carlisle spoke up

"At her rate of growth now physically she still has a few years until she has reached full growth and therefore full strength but we have worked it out that she only has a few months of growth until she reaches her full mental capacities"

"And what about emotionally?" Arthur asked "It might comfort Aro to know whether or not she will knowingly do something that may detriment your family" and once again someone different answered, and to my surprise it was the arrogant blonde, Rosalie

"Nessie is fully aware of who we are, and she has formed very close bonds with each of us" she said bluntly "so no she wouldn't do anything that would, hurt us" she said the last bit with resentment, as if hurting them had to do with killing them

"All this chatter" Arthur said jovially "I think we need to hear from the horses mouth, as it were" and everyone looked at him curiously "Renesmee?"

"Yes" she answered in a sweet voice

"Do you know the rules that the Volturi have laid down?" he asked and I noticed some of the family tense up at the question as if Arthur were asking something sinister, if only they knew what his agenda really was

"I think I do, I mean I know what is good and what is bad"

"But that differs from humans and vampires, can you understand the difference between the two?" Arthur asked

"Kinda" she answered quietly and fearfully

"Well then" Arthur said to her "it's a good thing that you are young and have plenty of time to learn" and I noticed everyone in the room that was tense relax and I saw Arthur wink at her and smile playfully

"Well that is that, I'm sure Aro has his own ideas for how to test Renesmee and I'm sure he'll test them out in about seven years when she is expected to be fully grown" I said "But we should move on to why we are really here" The Cullen's began to look a bit nervous, unsure of what to expect "Aro wishes to extend his personal condolences that he couldn't be here personally" I told them "but wants us on behalf of the Volturi to invite you to our Ball"

"Ball?" the clairvoyant said her interest piquing

"Yes, since our misunderstanding" I began, and heard the burly one scoff "the Volturi has undergone massive changes to its structure and cosmetic appearance, in celebration of this we wish to invite you and all of your fellows who think poorly of us and those who do not to the ball" I explained

"Why not send us an invitation" the other blonde male asked

"Aro, thought that the occasion might seem a bit sinister if we asked you impersonally" Arthur answered for me "he decided that if we asked you in person where you could examine our intentions you might take the invitation more graciously"

"That is very kind of you" Esme said to me, her eyes radiating a sense of warmth

"Yes it is" Carlisle answered "but you may have to give us time to think it over"

"That is" I said looking at Arthur who gave me a nod "acceptable, we are not here to pressure you in any way" and we weren't, I know Aro really did want to see Carlisle again, especially in a more friendly atmosphere where he might consolidate his friendship with Carlisle

"When Carlisle said to Aro about proving friends again" the mind reader said to me "he did not mean merely inviting us to a ball"

"Edward" Alice scolded him, clearly worried we would rescind the invitation

"That is true Edward" Carlisle said "But his consideration is certainly appreciated, and we will strongly consider what we will do" he said to me and I nodded

"Well if you do decide to accept, you can reach us at the hotel we will be here until the end of the week" I told them "And unless you have any questions I'd say business here is finished" and I looked at Arthur

"I would agree" he answered to my look

"With Aro's interest in myself and Alice?" Edward asked hesitantly

"Any interest has been momentarily quelled due to the introduction of Arthur" I answered without the hesitation "but I have no idea how he will react when he sees you again"

"Thank-you"

"How come you expect us to ask our friends to come to your ball?" the arrogant blonde asked

"That was my idea" Arthur answered "and it would appear that your standing and trust with the Volturi is less than that of your fellows, so if you ask they will be more inclined to accept, Aro does love a good party with plenty of guests" the blonde still looked fairly suspicious and Arthur picked up on it "but you and your fellows aren't the only guests outside of the Volturi, Aro is sending out invitations to all of his witnesses, so you need not fear an attack, because even with me the Volturi would not manage to destroy you all"

"And what exactly do you?" the burly one asked Arthur

"Oh, haphazardly one would call me telekinetic but more accurately I can manipulate all matter" and then suddenly the atmosphere of the room changed, it became very tense, all of the Cullen's worried, worried that if we were going to be aggressive the shield would be ineffectual "I knew I shouldn't have said anything" Arthur muttered "Don't worry I can't blow people up or change physical properties of matter I can just manipulate what is there" Arthur said in a last ditch attempt to calm the down

"That is certainly quite an extraordinary talent you have" the clairvoyant, Alice, said completely calm and I was suddenly thankful Arthur was not someone who liked to be feared, nor should he be feared he was only scary to people who should be scared

"Its late" Arthur said softly to everyone "You will all be wanting to go home and the hotel will be wanting their room back" he stood up and shook Carlisles hand "It was a great pleasure to meet you and your wonderful family" everyone else in the room stood up except for me "I hope to speak to you soon" Arthur farewelled

"Pleasure to meet you too" Carlisle said as he and his family cleared out but before they all left I felt a and on my shoulder"It was nice seeing you too" Esme said to me kindly and I smiled at her "you do deserve him, never think differently" and she too walked out the door meeting Carlisle in the hall.

Arthur and I were back in the room, as soon as we walked in he pulled me into a hug

"That went well I think" he said into my hair "They seem like very reasonable people"

"They are reasonable" I said into his chest

"But?" he asked

"They are highly annoying" and Arthur chuckled

"If I wanted to, I could make Isabella scream for you so take comfort in that knowledge"

"How did you know that she is the one that annoys me?" I asked him, pulling away and looking up at him

"You looked like you wanted to knock her sideways every time she spoke tonight, I was actually scared for you"

"Scared?" I asked again, but curiously this time and he looked down at me

"I think that if anything happened it would have been to fast for me to react to, but I thank you for being so professional"

"You're welcome" I groaned as I leaned back into his chest, we stood there for another few minutes before I pulled away "I'm going to change into something more comfortable" and I left him in the middle room alone. A pink silk blouse, jeans and a pair of flats, I took out a book and I laid down in the bed reading the book, all lights off.

I was disturbed that morning by the hotel room's phone ringing, I was about to get it when it was answered.

"Alec?" I heard Arthur's voice question "Alec, slow down, what happened?" he asked in a slow calm voice and I knew something was wrong so I leaped out of bed and heard Arthur say "Oh My God, Yes we'll go there immediately" and as soon as I was out Arthur was putting the phone down and looking at me with a grave face "We need to get to the Cullen's house, now" he said urgently and I merely nodded, he would tell me what had happened when we were on the road. At vampiric speed I rushed around and cleaned up my room and packed my suitcase and I could hear Arthur doing the same, I picked up both of my bags still wearing the clothes I was wearing when I hopped into the bed last night but I had added the black coat I was wearing when we met with the Cullen's, Arthur himself was wearing a grey v-neck shirt, with jeans, Nikes and a black cardigan his laptop case slung around his shoulder and his hair in an absolute state suitcase in hand. We human ran down the halls of the hotel and vampire ran down the empty staircase and then human jogged through the lobby to the front desk.

"We need to check-out" I told the lady

"I'm sorry we can't do that" she replied

"Why not" I demanded

"You two are minors, so we need a guardians permission", preferably a Mr. Marcus Vol…" she was cut off by Arthur

"Fuck this" he said as he pulled my arm "We don't have the time" and then we were down in the hotel garage loading bags in and once we were done he jumped in the drivers seat and kick started the engine, haphazardly reversing out and then gassing the car forward seamlessly changing gears. Before I could tell him to slow down we were on the streets of Seattle hurling along.

"What's wrong?" I asked him now that we had time

"The Romanians have amassed an army, some of that army attacked Volterra yesterday under the impression that both you and Alec were away, obviously they mistook myself for Alec"

"And what has that have to do with the Cullen's?" I interrupted with a horrified voice

"While none of our numbers where dwindled" Arthur stressed, so he was obviously getting to the answer "Aro saved a few for questioning, turns out the Romanians are gathering to their cause by appealing to vampires, one of the promises that they plan on acting on soon is the eradication of vegetarian vampires and any half-breeds, fortunately the Romanians do not know we are in the area so that gives us a severe advantage, our orders are evacuate the Cullen's and their cousins the Denali's to Volterra to be under the Volturi's protection" I huffed a little, having to be in close quarters with the shield at my home just seemed plain wrong but on the other hand that pain would be outweighed by the pleasure of killing some Romanians.

Arthur was driving so fast that only a matter of hours later we were pulling into the massive length of track that was the Cullen's drive way.

"Have to give them points for seclusion" I muttered and Arthur chuckled in agreement

"Yes we do" he said

We came to a complete stop outside the massive house, we got out at human speed and before we could walk to the door we were confronted with every single Cullen flanked by five of the shape-shifters, they had formed a line stopping us dead in our tracks.

"Jane, Arthur" Carlisle, who was standing in the middle addressed "We weren't expecting you so soon"

"Apparently" I said coldly

"Jane" Arthur scolded "Now is not the time for grudges" and I turned to give him a murderous glare but I saw that his eyes were pleading with me so I stopped and decided to let him do all the talking, I noticed the mind-reader tilt his head in curiosity at our exchange, and he wasn't the only one.

"Carlisle" Arthur began "We come with news and protection" and that was it, Arthur had decided to tell him which meant that Alice could 'see' everything that was going to happen

"Oh Dear Maker" she gasped, and Arthur looked at Carlisle pleadingly

"Can we please come inside?" he asked, Carlisle obviously a bit worried at Arthur's words and Alice's reaction, so he nodded and the line broke and Arthur and I entered behind Carlisle and Esme but in front of everyone else, we were lead to the dining room where Arthur and I were sat down with Carlisle and Esme while everyone stood around the edges waiting anxiously.

"Yesterday evening, after our meeting, Volterra was attacked by a contingent of about fifteen vampires" Arthur began calmly "the Volturi with Alec's help were able to stop the invasion before it got out of hand and Aro interrogated some of the invaders" he took an unneeded breathe "they said they belonged to the Romanians and that they were waging war upon the Volturi and all their sympathisers"

"Are we classified as your sympathisers then?" Esme asked from her seat, her face set with a fierceness I would not have expected from her

"No" Arthur answered flatly "But in order to gain popularity the Romanians are planning to kill, what they describe as heretics to the Vampire community"

"Where do we come in?" Carlisle asked calmly

"After your exoneration nine months ago, the vampire community has developed an aggressiveness toward you and your lifestyle, we believe that in a few days the Romanians will move to eradicate you and the Denali's, bringing and end to vegetarianism" Arthur said with a baleful finality

"What do we do?" asked Edward

"You need to call the Denali's down here, then Arthur and I will escort you to Volterra" I answered

"Just you and Arthur?" the shield asked

"Alec and several of the executive guard will be here in a few days, then we move, until then Jane and I will remain here to ensure your safety until then"

"That seems quite agreeable" Carlisle said his head down and calculating "We should pack our bags now and pack them into the cars and make and evacuation plan, Jasper we will need you to assimilate a protection plan, Jacob we need you to get on to Sam and to tell him to expect an invasion of Vampires but tell him to leave the ones with Volturi emblem alone"

"Jane and I can take three in our car, or we can take extra bags" Arthur said "and the Denali's will have their own car, tell them to bring luggage for a while"

While the wolves ran patrol around a border the Cullen's moved quickly packing everything they owned up and moving it to their basement in order to protect it they left only couches and chairs out for us to sit down. It had been a day and I still hadn't changed although I was thinking about changing into something more agile.

"You should" Edward said and I looked at him strangely and he went back to what he was doing

"What was that about?" Alice asked as she rested down next to me on a couch, only comfortable because she would know if I decided to hurt her

"I'm thinking of changing, just in case" I said

"You should, we have plenty of clothes lying around" she told me "Although that top is adorable"

"Thanks" I said bashfully "Just something I packed, nothing special"

"True" she agreed "at least seeing as though I've seen what you'll look like for the ball, it's a very beautiful dress"

"Thanks, again" I said, again bashfully and she giggled in her high voice, slightly annoying, but not intolerable.

"I went out to the car and sifted through my suitcase and found the ideal clothing, that would disguise my being a Volturi and be easy to move in. It was a wool-blend cowl-neck dress with cream cashmere leggings and a pair of ballet flats, when I finished getting ready and putting my hair in a loose bun and not the usual tight bun Alice skipped out and looked at me

"Now that is cute" she said "Arthur is going to love that" she grinned and then went into the woods. I walked back into the house and saw that Arthur was now sitting down, he looked at me and smiled, Alice was right, I walked up to him

"What's up?" he asked me

"I'm thinking we should avoid wearing black, so people don't recognise us" I told him

"That is a very good idea" he mused at he stood up and ran to the car to get changed as well, he was back in minute wearing a red checked shirt with rolled up sleeves a pair of dark blue jeans and a pair of slip on black shoes. "You like?" he asked me playfully

"I do" I said and before our banter could continue Edward came running in and he looked at us

"A Vampire just crossed the wolves border and their running him in" he said to us

"I think it's time we got a better look at the enemy" I said and we made our way to the Cullen's back garden standing, ready and waiting for the threat to reveal itself.

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A/N: Record Length in Record Time...Just to let you all know, I have started posting the song titles and sources from chapter 9 onwards that have inspired the chapter titles, and I have now provided links to polyvore so you can see some Jane's outfit's from chapter 14 onwards. And remember to review...please!


	16. Here We Go Again

Nothing Ever Stays the Same

Chapter 16- Here We Go Again

The unfamiliar vampire ran into the Cullen's back-garden and right into the middle of the semi-circle Arthur and I had formed with the Cullen's, when he saw us all amassed he looked frightened and about to high-tail it out of here.

"Arthur" I said as a cue for him to 'freeze' the unknown

"He's not going anywhere" Arthur replied his eyes focused on the unknown, then the wolves entered the field five familiar and three I did not know, he unknown was now completely surrounded, I walked forward and gestured for Arthur and Edward to follow and they did so

"Jane, we might need to use more traditional methods of interrogation" Edward said to me

"And why is that?" I asked him serenely

"He has a shield, it's a very specific one, he can't be fooled by illusion" interested to see if Edward was correct, I unleashed my power on him and he didn't even flinch and I felt my nostrils flare

"That's okay Edward, he'll just have to experience actual pain, Arthur"

"You sure?" he asked worriedly and I took a thoughtful breath

"Yes" I said decisively

"Very well" he said and the unknown began to howl with pain and Arthur stopped

"Who are you?" I asked plainly

"Alex" he panted, he had an accent but I couldn't place it yet "Alex Brilev" he was Russian

"Well Alex, what are you doing here?" I asked my eyes rolling around the landscape

"I was sent by Romanians to see if Cullen's are here" he said shakily

"Did they know if the Volturi would be here?" Arthur asked abruptly and I hissed at him

"No, but they send me just in case I run into one member, Jane" he answered obediently

"What do you know about this Jane?" I asked him, curious to find out what the Romanians think of me

"They say she is a devil-child, a heart-less witch who brings nothing but despair and final death" and I laughed

"When are the Romanians coming for the Cullen's?" I asked

"In two days, and if you kill me they will kill you as well" I laughed again, he propped himself on his knees and I walked over and took his head in my hands

"If you were to somehow make it back to the Romanians, would you be taking part in the destruction of the Cullen's?" Arthur asked, and I could feel a smile creeping up, Arthur was about to either ensure this vampires freedom or warrant his destruction

"Yes, the Romanians ask me to be back in time for assault" he said defiantly "and even without me they will win" I pulled his eyes up to meet mine

"Well, we will find out, but you on the other hand declared hostility and war upon this coven, that is punishable by death" I flicked around so I was behind him his head still in my hands but this time I was facing everyone "Do the vampires present, witness the willingness to break the law?" I asked and everyone replied with a 'yes' "Do we accord that this is punishable by death?" and once again there was a replied 'yes' "Then death it shall be, any last words Russian?" and with a clear brave voice he yelled

"Death to the Volturi" and before he could say anymore I yanked his head off of his shoulders and set his body alight

"Justice has been delivered" I announced "the convict is no more" and I walked back toward the house, leaving Arthur and Edward and everyone else standing by the corpse. I moved to the front of the house and sat on the front steps and ten seconds later I was joined by Arthur who took one of my hands in both of his and I leant my head against his shoulder.

"Was there a possibility" he began "that you would have let him live?" he asked softly

"No" I answered flatly

"What if there wasn't a law…" he started to say but I cut him off, pulling my hand out of his and pulling my head of his shoulder, I took his head in my hands

"There is always a law" I said to him "in this world there are so many things that are illegal, so many things that carry a death sentence, things that only exist in order to remove those the Volturi don't like"

"But then we all may as well stay dead" he said earnestly

"I know" I whispered "But the Volturi only engage ninety percent of those laws in extreme circumstances, and it is not our place to judge or condemn when those laws are enabled no matter how ridiculous they seem" he smiled sheepishly and then dropped his head on my shoulder and we just sat there for several minutes.

At the same time both Arthur and I heard the car pulling off the highway and onto the Cullen's driveway we both stood up standing side-by-side unsure of whether to expect the Denali's or the Volturi, the Cullen's were still around not coming outside to the sound of the approaching car, the tension mounted as they got closer, then from around the corner came a white Range Rover and stepped the Denali clan. Tanya with her strawberry blonde curls, Kate with her dead straight blonde hair, Garret with his mess of brown hair let loose around his shoulders, Eleazar looking much the same as he did when he was living with the Volturi except for his golden eyes and of course that harlot Carmen. When they saw us they all stopped dead and Eleazar had his mouth gaping while staring at Arthur before he composed himself looking sufficiently spooked.

"What is the meaning of this Jane?" demanded Tanya "we get a call for Carlisle telling us to come here immediately and then we find you on his from porch" and then Kate gave Tanya a nudge

"Tanya, Tanya" she urged and then when Tanya looked she pointed up in the air over our heads and we followed to see purple smoke rising over the house, Dammit I swore internally.

"What have you done?" Tanya screamed at me before she and herself, Kate and Carmen flung themselves toward us and I saw Garret and Eleazar trying to grab them, Eleazar in particular looking desperate. Before they got a metre in front of us Arthur had stopped them all dead in their tracks, it was eerie to see five vampires struggling to move but not being able to.

"You know, we at least let people explain themselves before we kill them" Arthur said casually then he turned his head "Carlisle, the Denali's are here" he called and then turned back to the scene "I'm going to let you go know, are you going to try and jump us again?" he asked with a condescending tone

"No" Tanya said furiously but obediently, and then she was free to move as were the other four and then Carlisle was out and walking past us toward his extended family

"Tanya, welcome" he said as he took her into an embrace

"What is the meaning of this?" Tanya asked him, her eyes locked with mine

"They are here to help us, once again we are in great danger, and I refer to you as well" he said

"Carlisle, what's happening?" Kate asked in a worried tone, Carlisle walked them all inside and they became relieved to see the family was in tact and then Carlisle introduced them to Arthur and Arthur explained to them the situation

"So we need you to come with us to Volterra" he concluded and there was hissing between the two sisters

"No" Tanya said adamantly "absolutely not, I am not going anywhere near Caius"

"We can't leave you here" Arthur pleaded "And I'm sure Aro would be happy to set you up in a hotel, you don't have to stay in the castle"

"We aren't going and that's it" Kate said fiercely

"Well I suppose Alec will be here in a day or two so you will be coming, just not willingly" I said errantly and Kate turned to me and hissed and I was about to use my power on her when I felt Arthur's hand on my arm and I saw the shield screw her eyes in concentration obviously putting up her shield to protect Kate and that really pissed me off, she was willingly to help the agitator then the person here against her will about to save her and her entire family, typical Cullen, no idea clue as to where her priorities should be, I then saw the mind-reader cast me a warning glance and the emotion-controller give me daggers. I let it go, I had a feeling Arthur might have trouble fending off thirteen mature vampires, and what with him being the almighty diplomat it might compromise his standing. Arthur let out a sigh of relief when he felt me relax, then he came to my side of the argument

"But Jane is right, you will come with us and Isabella won't stop Alec from using his power on you two" Arthur said calmly "But there will be no need for such hostility, all you need to do is accompany us to Volterra and then Aro will decide to do, and if the Romanians are dealt with quickly enough then there will be no need for you to stay"

"And we will be there" Carlisle said aiding Arthur in his plight

"Fine" Tanya said bitterly "Katie, what do you think" she asked her sister who still had her eyes locked with mine

"Whatever" she said and broke off her stare and turned to Garret "Take a walk with me" she said and they both up and left the room

"So Arthur" Eleazar began "When did the Volturi pick you up?" he asked and most of the tension in the room dissipated

"A few months ago, in Belgium, they had Jane assault me in a bar, then later I get a knock on my hotel room door I open and standing there are two men, one looked suspiciously similar to Jane and the other looked really severe, they just about dragged me out of my room to a shipping yard container and changed"

"That sounds…nice" Eleazar said very unsure of how he was supposed to react

"Oh yes, it was terribly romantic, especially when I had this one here" he nudged me playfully in the ribs "watching me eagerly when I woke up" I laughed at his sarcasm

"So you two are…uh" Carmen began

"Sort of" I said

"Its highly complicated" Arthur said

"How is it complicated?" asked Tanya, speaking for the first time since her outburst, she had calmed down significantly

"Well, I suppose the only way to convince Aro we weren't going to take off was to assure him we would take things slow, keep our distance" Arthur said

"That sounds difficult not complicated" Carmen said

"It is" I answered "But on the other hand, we're young and I suppose it would be a bit much to be irrevocably in love without any sort of foundation to it"

"That makes more sense" Eleazar said "and I definitely understand the Aro part, he would never want to lose either of you, especially you Jane" I gave him a slight smile

"I don't think we'll ever leave the Volturi" Arthur said, and I felt this flutter in my chest "I mean it's the only home both Jane and I know, and Alec is there"

"I didn't know you thought that way" I said to him "Thank-you for that" and I really was, it was a huge relief to know that there was no pressure to go anywhere, to show my gratitude I gave him a quick kiss on the cheek, so quick in fact I don't think even he noticed.

I was standing in the setting sun outside on the Cullen's balcony, when Kate's mate Garret came out.

"Hello Jane" he said and I turned around to look at him

"Adapting well to this condemned lifestyle?" I asked him serenely

"Not without tremendous difficulty, this is the closest I've been to humans in months" I looked past his shoulder to see Arthur deep in conversation with Eleazar, talking about his power obviously, Eleazar could probably give him strong insight into what he can do so I couldn't blame him. "I've heard some terrible stories about your power" he said to me and I eyed him curiously

"You don't even want to go there" I told him flatly

"You couldn't be much worse than Katie" he said

"I am, my power is the illusion of pain, the worst pain imaginable, worse than being changed"

"If its an illusion how can it be worse than the actual pain of being changed?" he asked, and I decided to satisfy his very morbid sense of curiosity.

"Because Garret, the reason I was changed at the age I was, is because the people in my village were very superstitious people, so superstitious that one night the whole village surrounded my family home, with the very traditional pitchforks and fire they killed my parents and abducted my brother and I, they brought us to the village centre where they had assembled a pyre they tied my brother and I to a pole and set the pyre alight" I took a theatrical breath and he looked a me with sympathy "I didn't scream, although I could feel the fire burning through my feet, my everything turning to ash, my sensitive human body withering away, beside me Alec wasn't screaming either, but everyone else there was running and confusion, and then next thing I knew I was thrown off the pyre and I was crawling for shelter when I found it I was still blinded by pain, I can hardly remember the brief conversation I had with Aro, but I remember the change and it was not nearly as bad as the burning" I finished and Garret was absolutely aghast, but there was also some more curiosity, Edward must have heard what Garret was thinking because he called through the door

"Garret, Kate doesn't have anything on Jane when it comes to pain"

"What does that fool want to do?" Kate asked

"He wants to try out Jane's power" Edward answered

"Let the idiot do it, he'll be harassing me otherwise" Kate said and Garret gave me a look

"How bout' it?" he asked

"Small, Medium or Large" I asked him

"Large" he said confidently

"Well, you are a fool aren't you" I said "But hey, it's not my body" I looked him dead in the eye "Brace yourself" and with that he was on the floor like a sack of potatoes, his face screwed up, himself grunting not letting himself scream, ten more seconds I thought better make sure he remembers it because I don't like being asked. His ten seconds were up and I stopped, he stopped twitching and composed himself again, stood up and looked at me

"Thank-you, but make sure to let me know if I start getting on your nerves because I really don't want to do that again" I laughed

"You better get back inside, so your mate gave give you slap" I said and he walked away through the door not looking back, no regrets, just running away at a walk. A few minutes later Arthur came out and gave me a hug from behind and I leaned into him, he kissed the top of my head and leaned into my ear"We need to leave" he whispered "tomorrow, we cannot linger"

"Why not?" I whispered back

"The Romanians will be here tomorrow, if their scout doesn't return they know exactly where the Cullen's are and they will retaliate"

"Is this logic, or a gut feeling" I asked him

"gut feeling"

"Ok, we'll leave" I told him and he continued to hug me as we watched the woods from the patio.

"We need to leave" Arthur announced "Today"

"Why?" the shield asked

"Because it's not the Romanians making the decisions for this lot, it'll be someone else, Alice can you see what will happen if we stay another day here?"

"No, there is nothing but blackness, and its coming quick" she said in a panic

"Pack your cars and have the ready to go" I said hurriedly "We're going now" and then everyone was up and moving for the garage, Arthur went to get our car, his plan was to create a column and he hoped the other Volturi would be here soon so he could have the Cullen's and Denali's in the middle while the Volturi escorted and the top and bottom

"What makes you sure it'll work?" Edward asked him

"They'll be on foot, it'll be easier to organize themselves that way, cars are too complicated" then Arthur was outside, and I was inside helping the Cullen's bring their belongings to the front door and keeping my eyes pealed for an attack from behind.

"Jane" I heard him call and I ran outside and found another black Mercedes S-Class pulling up, it came to a complete stop and four people stepped out; Alec, Felix, Demetri and Heidi. "You people are just in time to help" Arthur said to them "We had a scout yesterday and are expecting the mob today, we're moving out" and then Felix, Demetri and Heidi all went moving about seeing who they could help and Alec came up to me and gave a monstrous hug, pulling me up and swinging me around

"Good to see you in one piece" He said enthusiastically

"You too" I said "Now put me down" he did so and then he went to give Arthur a hello.

When we were done loading up the cars, the Cullen's had reluctantly agreed to leave their smaller cars behind and take just their Volvo and their Mercedes, we were in the living room getting the news from the Volturi that had just arrived, Aro was apparently furious and had half the guard in Romania tearing down any castle they could find, Caius was the rational of the two for once, pleading that he at least do it systematically it was his pleading that had stopped Aro from sending out the entire guard. Esme was still outside loading the Mercedes when we heard it, rustling in the trees out back and a conversation though we couldn't make out what or whom, then Edward's face fell, he then got up in spectacular fashion and sprinted for the front door, we then heard him yell 'Esme No!' and then there was an almighty crash as a boulder crashed through the house, we were all alert then running out the front we saw Edward and Esme on the ground and above them we saw, Benjamin the Egyptian elemental, shit I said internally.

"Get to the cars" I screamed and everyone was running, then we heard bashing through the house "Stop" I urged "Behind us" and everyone turned around, Felix, Heidi, Demetri, Emmet, Jasper and Garret all formed a defensive line in front of us, I saw Arthur looking at Benjamin and I knew they were fighting, mentally each of them pushing as hard as they could with their respective powers, then everyone else copped onto themselves and rushed to the line, Edward and Esme were up and at the line Bella was holding Renesmee and projecting her shield and then I saw in the corner of my eye and heard in my ears the rustling of paws and the stealthy movement of earthy tones through the forest and I knew the wolves were going to flank the vampires from behind, Alec was at my side the next instant and he was pulling me toward the line but I moved instead to Arthur, where I thought the most important fight was happening. I stood by Arthur's side and I unleashed on Benjamin, he crippled instantly and I saw Arthur relax his focus before he raised his hands Benjamin raising with them, then with all his might he threw Benjamin as far as he could, I had a suspicion that, that was straight into a mountain. We both then turned around to the fight behind us just in time as a vampire jumped at us Arthur flew him back into the fray

"Keep me covered" he said and I nodded he raised his hand again and this time everyone was frozen still, he then pulled our allies out of the battle and behind us, he let them go

"Get in the cars and start the engines, Volturi stay with me" everyone obeyed and there was a brief shuffling and then Arthur and I were flanked and engines were starting up again. Everyone on our side had survived and some were sticking limbs back on, the other side was much the same except there wasn't any movement from them.

"Alec" I said

"Already on it" he said and then all of a sudden the vampires were all limp as bonefish and Arthur let them all go so they fell straight to the ground, Arthur winced and moved his head around as if he were shaking something off or he had a flash of pain in his head. Then the rest of us got to work dismembering the bodies and starting the fire, when the bodies were burning we got into our cars and we tore off down the driveway and onto the road driving to Seattle and the plane that would carry us back to Italy, back to Volterra, back to the only safe place on earth for us and the vegetarians.

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A/N: I can see the end of the story coming, but I will at least manage to get to over 20 chapters...people, review, PLEASE. And if no one has noticed I'm leaving the title to the next chapter up as a spoiler for what might be coming!


	17. Coming Up Easy

Nothing Ever Stays the Same

Chapter 17- Coming Up Easy

The race from Forks to Seattle ended without any consequence, we were now boarding our private charter which Aro had supplied for us, the plane was full but everyone was happy to sit down and keep to themselves, this meant that it wasn't busy, there was a clear division, the Cullen's and Denali's kept to one half of the plane and us Volturi kept to the other, very much a classic example of us and them. Sometime during the journey I made a trip from our side of the plane to theirs in order to get changed in the toilet, I swapped my other clothes for a sleeveless jersey dress by DKNY, my white Burberry trench, the pair of grey flats I wore over to America and I topped it off with a necklace I found in a store somewhere, it was very pretty and I couldn't resist. It was also by some stroke of a miracle that Aro had managed to get the plane a non-stop flight route straight to Italy, so we were being carried straight home, no dawdling allowed.

When we arrived at the airport we were met by the rest of the executive guard, it was great to see them, after spending so much time around the Cullen's I was beginning to feel homesick, but home was where I was and I felt myself mentally let out a sigh. I then noticed the format in which those of us who got of the plane were walking in, I was walking at the front flanked by Arthur and Alec, behind us was Heidi, Felix and Demetri, behind them was Carmen and Eleazar who were followed by Carlisle and Esme who were then followed by the rest of them in a tight circle. I greeted Chelsea, Renata and Corin with hugs and I gave Afton, Santiago a handshake, once everyone else had, had their hello's and their introductions we were being led out the airport to the taxi line where five Audi A6's were waiting. Afton, Chelsea, Corin, Renata and Santiago each jumped behind the wheel of one and the rest of us filed in where we could having packed our bags in whichever car we could, we were soon on the road speeding toward Volterra. As soon as we were clear of Florence I noticed about five Audi A3's flanking us as an escort. Aro definitely pulled all the stops to make sure the Vegetarians got to Volterra safely, and we did, soon arriving at the ancient city and moving onto the winding drive-way which lead to the massive garage. Once inside Aro and Marcus were there smiling wonderfully at us as we got out of the car's, Caius was not be seen but that was likely for the best. Aro embraced me when I got to him

"Welcome home dear one" he told me and I smiled at him sheepishly, Marcus simply put his hand on my shoulder and gave me a warm smile, as if some sort of pain had been relieved, I walked away from the two of them and back to the car that had my bags, when I got to the car I found Arthur already pulling everything out for me.

"How are you?" he asked me kindly

"Better" I told him "Especially since we're home" I gave him an appraising look, and I noticed he was still a bit uncomfortable "What about yourself?" I asked

"Hopefully" he said "I'll be better when I get some time to myself, I'm not that good around lots of people for a long time without my own space" I was a little hurt, and my face must have showed it because suddenly I was in his arms "Not that I ever need time or space away from you, you will never crowd me, you are everything I need and everything I never thought I'd find"

"Thank-you" I said into his chest and we quickly broke away, collecting our bags and running back to our rooms together, making sure that no one followed us, because though I would never tell him I felt the same way about space.

My room was left untouched, thankfully, I started by putting all my clothes in my closet and barely managed to get my ball dress in before Arthur knocked on the door.

"Hello" he called through the door

"Come in" I called back and he stepped in timidly, trying not to be intrusive "What's the matter?"

"Aro, wants to see us" he said, I sighed internally, of course Arthur would come in to tell me that, he only ever came in to talk about work

"And here I thought, you came to see me" I said to him, pretending to be hurt

"Maybe later" he said back to me "Oh, and he asks that you wear something less sinister and more comfortable" I looked at Arthur murderously

"What!" I snapped

"Hey" he said raising his hands, completely calm "I'm just the messenger, if you have a problem, take it up with the boss, but in plain and simple clothes" I gave him a snide look and went back to my wardrobe

"So do I get to see the dress?" he asked teasingly

"No, not until the night" I said adamantly

"What is this a wedding?" he asked in unbelief

"No, but I don't want you to see it, so you are not seeing it" I told him flatly, he smiled at me, he was now leaning on the door-frame to my wardrobe

"What jewellery will go with it?" he asked

"What is it to you?" I countered

"I should supply something to the outfit"

"What?" I exclaimed "I think I should buy you something for the outfit" he said to me, slower than he did previously"Oh, no, you don't have to spend your money, I've got much more than you, I can take care of it" I said hurriedly"Just because you have more money than me, doesn't mean that I don't have a lot" he argued "And I really want to buy you something anyway, so I thought the ball would be a nice cover" he told me sweetly, sweetness, after all my life of sourness and misery there was someone being sweet telling me they wanted to do things for me, mates! I will never get used to it, and it will always surprise me.

"Fine" I caved, and Arthur pulled his face into a victorious smile that looked good on him "Just, go" I said "I need to get changed" "Maybe I could…" I knew what he was going to suggest

"GO!" I yelled and he hightailed it out of my room "And if I have to wear something comfortable and less sinister, so do you" I called after him.

In a decidedly foul mood I scoured the newer pieces in my wardrobe for something appropriate to wear and settled for something bright, it was a printed silk-georgette dress by Diane Von Furstenberg I accompanied it with a pair of Pedro Garcia satin pumps, a pair of tights and some jewellery. I had no idea why Aro would ask such a thing, but I had no choice but to go along with it. Once I was satisfied with my appearance I made my way into our common room where both Alec and Arthur where sat down and waiting for me Alec was wearing thin striped blue shirt with a leather bomber jacket a pair of boot cut jeans and a pair of rather shabby looking Doc Martins, Arthur of the other hand was wearing a green v-neck with a cardigan (a look he was almost always sporting) a pair of slim fitting jeans with a pair of leather fashion boots that he had tucked his jeans, he had also brushed his hair down with his fingers and put his fringe across his forehead. His hair now looked similar to Alecs except his was shorter and the colour was lighter and the fringe crossed his forehead in the opposite direction to Alec's.

"You changed your hair" I said to him

"You told me to look less sinister and more comfortable, and short of dressing in baby pink this is the best I could come up with" he said in reply, a sly smile played upon his face "Mind, I'm not the only here who changed their hair" he told me and I felt my body attempt to blush, it was true I had tied my hair back and put it in a very loose bun held together by a ornately decorated hair piece.

"Well thi is all very well and good" Alec interrupted "But there are people waiting on us" and with that both Arthur and I broke our gaze and we left together with Alec in front. As we made our way through the castle we noticed people giving us odd looks but no one made any verbal comments.

We knocked on the door to the Master's Common Room and waited for it to be answered, about a moment later it was, Caius opened the door and stood there while he appraised our attire.

"Well Jane aren't you looking rather" he paused mulling over what word to choose "feminine" he managed to say a gloating smile upon his face

"Easy Jane" Arthur urged me, his hand on my shoulder "You look great"

"Thank-you" I said to them both, a certain malice in my tone for Caius' benefit

"Come in you three" Caius said to us and he pulled open the door completely and stood aside to allow us access. As we stepped in I appraised the room, behind Aro's desk stood Aro and Marcus and Athenadora and Sulpicia sat down behind it. The Cullen's were assembled around the front of Aro's desk, Alice turned and looked at me, she smiled smugly at my clothes and turned away.

"Jane, Alec and Arthur of course" Aro beamed at us "How nice of you all to join us" he took a moment to appraise each of our outfit's before saying "And I am grateful to see you took my advice to practice" I wanted to say 'did I have a choice sir?' but I settled for

"Of course, I will always listen to your valuable advice" he smiled gracefully at me, I wonder if he actually knew how sarcastic I wanted to be to him or whether he was oblivious to it. I noticed Edward suppressing a smirk.

"It appears" Aro began "That despite living in a castle, we lack the proper facilities to accommodate both the Cullen's and Denali's completely, at least not without putting them in with the main guard or in the basement"

"What are you trying to say sir?" asked Alec from behind me

"Given that you have a spare room in you're section, it would only be expected for a couple from the Cullen's or Denali's to occupy that space" I let a sour break out on my face "However" Aro said over my brooding "I decided that given past history, we would let you choose who would stay in that room, Alice and Jasper have already volunteered and Carlisle and Esme have expressed that they wouldn't mind" I felt both Arthur and Alec tap my foot that was on the side of Alice and Jasper and I agreed, Alice was nice to us and she would be easy to get along with, and Jasper did whatever Alice told him to do out of blind faith in her ability to get them out of any situation.

"We would be happy to take Alice and Jasper" I said to Arthur, and Alice let a unremarkable grin break across her face

"Well, that sorts that out" Aro said in relief "Jane, Alec and Arthur could you take Alice and Jasper to their room, I'm confident that Alice can tell you what I am going to speak to the rest about"

"Of course I can Aro" Alice said to him, I was a little shocked to react, TWO Cullen's would be staying within close proximity of me

"If you'll follow me" Arthur said from behind me and both Alice and Jasper made the move to follow him, I snapped out of it and I walked out in front of them.

Once we were hearing distance away from Aro's office Arthur leaned over to me

"Are you okay?" he asked sincerely

"Just fine" I responded blandly

"You can go if you want" he told me "Alice and Jasper won't be any trouble, and Alec and I do know the way to our common room" I stopped and looked him in the eyes

"Thank-you" I said sweetly before I gave him a quick waist hug and ran off. I went to Didyme's garden where I sat down. 'The Cullen's' I brooded, I would rather Aro just wiped them off the face of the world, they were causing much too much trouble it should have started when Carlisle first came to the Volturi, damn Aro and his curiosity got in the way of eradicating those with sympathy for human's, the vile and virulent creatures they are. Humanity is what they say they have, but they do not deserve to have such beautiful concepts named after them. Now I was living with sympathisers of that sad and sorry race, they say they have compassion by killing animals when it is animals that need our compassion, they are the victim of human ruthlessness, when I kill a human I consider it a service to animals they are the ones who need to be protected. I looked over the vast Tuscan landscape and I saw something, it was a camp of tents not overly far from Volterra, something caught my eye when I looked over it was a flash of brilliant, dazzling, diamond like light that shimmered on something or many things.

I leapt up, Romanians I thought, but I can't tell Aro he wouldn't believe me he would say

"Jane dear is was a trick of the light" but what could I do, then it struck me, if I could know if there was any intention to camp out around the Volturi by Vampires then it could be seen and more importantly it could be seen by Alice. I spun on my heel and headed for the door but not before a petite figure was in my way. Alice was standing there, eye's locked on the distance

"You're right" she said her head now slightly tilted "They are part of the Romanian army, on a scouting mission I think" then she broke out of her trance and looked me straight in the eyes

"and a raiding mission" she told me. I grabbed her hand and pulled her through the castle to Aro's office "that's a very nice dress on you" she said as we moved

"Thank-you" I responded in a kind tone. I knocked on the door hard and fast and Marcus opened the door

"Ah Jane" he said warmly "and Alice?"

"We need to see you Aro and Caius quite urgently" I said with a slight tone of hysteria

"Come in then" he said as he pulled the door open to allow us in. Aro, Caius, Marcus, the wives as well as Carlisle and Esme were sitting in the common room

"Jane" said Aro brightly

"Alice?" Carlisle asked

"To what do we owe the pleasure?" asked Aro graciously

"Something quite unpleasant" I said and he nodded for me to continue "There is a host of Romanian vampires camping a hundred miles or so away, Alice has confirmed this as well as that they are here to scout and to raid" Aro's face turned hard and with unmeasurable speed was in front of me, his hand outstretched

"Show me" he demanded and I touched my hand to his, after a moment he took his hand away from me and put in front of Alice "Alice" he said forcefully and she did the same as I did another moment later and Aro had a look of ferocity on his face "This is an absolute outrage" he screamed "Jane, you Alec and Arthur are going to take of these traitors for their heresy"

"Yes Master" I nodded and then left quickly, partly eager to get this raid finished and partly to escape Aro's wrath. I hadn't noticed Alice was following me until she grabbed my hand and stopped me"Jasper and I are coming with you" she said firmly

"No" I responded just a firmly "You are guests, so you will stay in your room"

"You need us" she pleaded

"No we don't, I could take down every single person there with my power, so could Alec and so could Arthur"

"But I could locate the leader and take them out, it would disorganize them and it would make it so much more easy, I've seen it" she argued forcefully to me

"Fine" I agreed "But you take out any of the leaders then you get out"

"Thank-you" she chirped and hugged me "you're getting soft Jane" she told me mid-embrace, I pushed her off and said

"Watch yourself human" I said in insult.

* * *

A/N: Sorry it took so long for me to get this chapter up, I'd say I was busy when really I was just feeling a little lazy


	18. Fresh Blood

Nothing Ever Stays the Same

Chapter 18- Fresh Blood

I scoured through my wardrobe looking for something appropriate to wear, a floral dress was not suited for killing unless the killer had a cruel sense of humour, which I did not have. I decided on all black, it was symbol of my rank as well as the Volturi's unofficial colour. It was a pair of leggings, a pair of leather ballet flats, a sequined top by Philosophy di Alberto Ferretti, a pair of leather Burberry gloves and a black jacket by Giambattista Valli. I pulled my hair into a tight bun and gave myself a once over, satisfied with my look a strode out of my room to the common room. Alec, Arthur and Jasper were all waiting patiently, they too were dressed in all black, Alec and Arthur were dressed similarly except Alec's wore clothes of a bygone era and Arthur did not.

"Where's Alice?" I asked Jasper

"She'll be here in a minute, she's just getting ready" he said in his smooth Texan accent

"For someone who can see the future" Arthur began "you'd think she could organise herself a bit better" Jasper and Alec both smirked at the comment and I suppressed a small giggle by raising a hand to my face while Arthur had a bemused look on his face from humouring us all. Alice came out a second later wearing a Halston Heritage Jumpsuit, Gucci leather gloves, Christian Louboutin boots and a coat by Clements Ribeiro.

"Is it too much?" she asked sweetly "I didn't know what to wear, and when I looked into the future it was the only black thing I have that doesn't break"

"Its fine" I told her straight "Now lets get down to the garage so we can sort this out"

"We should take my car" Arthur said firmly

"Why?" Alec argued

"Because I haven't got to drive it yet" Arthur retorted

"Guy's their all the same" Alice pointed out, and she was right, right now Arthur and Alec were arguing over whose Jaguar we should take

"That's not the point" Alec said to Alice "Its whether we should take my Jaguar or Arthur's Jaguar" It was amusing in the beginning but it was starting to wear me down now, they continued arguing for another few minutes, Alice and Jasper both feebly tried to interject but couldn't manage to find a break in the verbal squabble.

"Enough" I shrieked at the top of my lungs and everyone froze "We are going to take MY car" Alec and Arthur nodded and we made our way to my car, as I got into the drivers seat I began to berate them

"Why is it, that whenever we need to be places you boys always manage to get into an argument over or about cars, how can you possibly so puerile, I swear to my mortal life if you ever get into such a ridiculous argument around me again I will torture you both within an inch of your sanity, savvy?"

"Yes Jane" they both said in fear

"Good" I said taking a mock breathe "Now we can go" I started up the car and drove out of the garage. The drive to our base site was quiet no one dared to make noise, I guessed it was in fear of my retaliation, Alice and Jasper were especially quiet, it might have been due to a lack of 'shield' they had from me or Alec.

Once we arrived on the escarpment that we were using as our base camp we all got out of the car, I opened the boot and I pulled out some electronic equipment we could use for communicating discreetly, I handed it out and everyone took it without question. Also we all took of our jackets and put them in the boot of the car, it would be easier to move without them on.

"Remember Alice you go in and kill all of the leaders with Jasper, once that is done you come back to the car and you wait" Alice and Jasper both nodded "This shouldn't take more than an hour, The camp is laid out in a triangle, Arthur you take the bottom of the camp and push them toward the centre, Alec you take the far side and do the same, I'll take the closest side"

"Ready?" Alice asked and we all nodded in response "Alright, their all gathered around a camp-fire in the centre, but the leaders are of hunting, so it'll be easier to take them out without causing a ruckus, good luck" and with that she and Jasper were gone

"Lets go boy's" I said and they both smiled at me evilly, Alec left first leaving Arthur and I by ourselves by the car

"Keep yourself safe will you" he told me

"Will do" I said looking at his tender, love-filled eyes, it was getting harder to stop myself from jumping on him and 'showing' my love for him "And take care yourself" I managed to say before leading us away toward the site. I stopped where I needed to stop and Arthur kept going.

"So I was thinking of doing something dramatic" Arthur's voice sounded over the inter-com "What if I 'freeze' them all and then we go in tell them why their dying then have Alec anaesthetize before we kill them, it'll be quicker not to mention more of a work-out"

"I'm good for that" Alec said

"Fine" I agreed "As long as I get to do the talking"

"Not a problem" Arthur said

Alec and I were waiting for the signal in our respectful spots, the night was quiet and there was no sign of an attack going on though I knew Arthur was working his power

"Okay move in" his voice finally said over the inter-com, I sat up from my crouching position and I ran as fast as I could toward the camp, when I hit it I found all the tents were lined up in perfect, concordant rows and columns, I slowed my pace to a creep, I had my ears peeled for any vampires that my be loose of Arthur's control, I moved carefully not making a audible sound, I may be one of the most powerful vampires in the world but even I could be overwhelmed in battle by sheer numbers and I never did ask Alice how many there were. Once I came in sight of the centre and campfire I straightened my back and assumed a strut to carry me forward into the light.

"About time, what did you think would happen if you just ran?" asked Alec in a irritable tone, he was standing opposite me, Arthur was too my left and when I looked his way he gave me a courteous nod. Around the camp-fire there was thirty vampires frozen in position looks of shock plastered on each and everyone of their faces.

"Next time you want to spy on and raid Volterra you would do well to stay out of sight of the castle" I said loudly and with perfect diction and inflection "As such you are being charged with heresy and conspiracy to cause unlawful revolution" the faces seemed to go from panicked to grave and sombre "the punishment for which is death, however because you have yet to commit any acts of violence we will kill you in a painless way" I finished and nodded to Alec, I could feel the familiar haze surrounding me but not enveloping me, it was oddly comforting and eventually I looked around and the once sombre and afraid were now blank and empty, devoid as it were of everything, they were totally clueless.

"Jane" Arthur said over the silence "Would you care to have the honour of the first ten"

"Certainly" I said a glint of pleasure coming across in my voice, I made my way over to my first victim, I rather beautiful looking female, she had a ghost of a smile on her face, as if she had just laid a trap and trapped someone. I placed my hands around her head got a firm grasp, I took a breathe and jerked my arms back and took her head with me, the satisfying clunk as I separated the marble head from the marble body, I rush of what I could only describe as would-be-adrenaline and I shook from the pleasure. I made quick work to remove the rest of her limbs and quartering her torso and throwing each and every single bit of her into the convenient fire.

"Your turn" I said to the boy's and they each moved forward and took their prey and coped my movements in destroying them, whether or not they felt the immense joy that I felt was not revealed. I continued to pick off the last nine victims, the pleasure I felt with the first did not fade away by the time I got to the last, however the last one had gotten time to Alec's power and began fighting it, he was thrashing around a biting like a headless chicken. I managed to get my arms around him and tried to get a firm hold, but he continued to jerk

"Have you got that under control Jane?" asked my brother

"Yeah" I said, my voice strained with the effort, I moved to take his head off and as soon as I slackened my grip he flipped me over his shoulder and stated biting at me arm, I grunted in agony, normally I would use my power but in the case of a non-feeling vampire I figured it wouldn't work. In the next moment everything stopped, the vampire stopped biting and thrashing, the venom in my arm was starting to burn, I wasn't sure what was happening, I didn't know if there was outside interference or if the limb vampire that had its arms around me had just given up.

"Would you like to finish him off?" Arthur's voice came in a soft whisper next to my ear

"Can you take him" I asked pained, weak voice

"Okay" he said rubbing my shoulder affectionately, I leaned into it and next thing I knew the unfamiliar vampire was gone and it was just me in Arthur's arms. It was comfortable and it was safe and I had a feeling Arthur was freezing the flow of venom in me because I couldn't feel any pain, that or Alec was doing something despite that we promised never to use our powers against each other except in the most dire circumstances, this situation wasn't something I'd call dire.

"Alec can you check around the tents for anything that may be useful" Arthur said

"What are you going to do?" Alec asked

"I'm going to try and get this venom out of your sister" he said

"You're going to do what?" I demanded

"Take the venom out" Arthur repeated

"No you're not" I said firmly

"Yes I am, and don't even bother fighting me on this"

"Do you want to numb her?" Alec asked tentatively

"No, I won't be able to feel it if everything is numb" Arthur said

"Okay" Alec said and he left, I felt cheated, he was leaving me and wasn't even going to fight Arthur on this, Dick head.

"Ready?" Arthur asked softly, so softly it would melt me any other hour and any other day

"No" I responded pitifully like a little child

"Too bad" he told me "Hold my hand, I have the inclination that this will hurt" he told me frankly, I grasped his hand tightly and looked him in the eyes with nothing but pure spite, he just rolled it off and put his free hand over my bite marks. I felt nothing initially but then pain, extraordinary pain seared through my entire arm and a little way up my shoulder, I cringed into his chest and increased the pressure at which a held his hand, I ground my teeth and let a whimper.

"Just a little bit longer" he cooed to me, and I nodded, a minute later the pain was gone completely and I relaxed completely "Would you like me to fix your skin so it won't scar?" he asked then

"Will it hurt?" I asked in a pathetic voice

"Maybe" he told me

"Then no" I've had enough pain for now

"Alright" he said and he said no more, just let me rest in his arms for a few minutes of respite.

Alec came back around five minutes after Arthur had finished, I was still in his arms too comfortable to move

"I got all the files I could" he told Arthur

"Good" Arthur responded gently "Now take your sister back to the car and wait for me there, I'll sort out the rest of the camp" I felt my weight being taken by my brother as we pried me away from Arthur, a place of safety I didn't want to leave. Once Alec got me on my feet I took my weight and just let him support me as we ran leaving Arthur sitting on the ground.

When we got back to the car Alice and Jasper were waiting for us, Alice took me in her arms like a person would do for a friend giving Alec the freedom to pack up the car and to put my jacket on. I looked anxiously over toward the camp and then I saw a massive explosion as the whole camp was engulfed in flames

"Arthur" I all but screamed in my panic

"Shhh" Alice cooed "ten seconds" she whispered in my ear, and still in my panic I looked on in the distance counting down, ten, nothing no sign; nine, still no sign in the empty, dark landscape; eight, still no sign, my panic starting to well inside me again; seven, where was he? Please let him be on his way here; Six, I saw a flicker of movement but it could have been anything; Five, another flicker, once again it could have been anything but that didn't stop hope suppressing my panic; Four, the flicker moved down to the base of the escarpment so I couldn't see anything; Three, still nothing, but I held my breathe a building anxiety in my body; Two, I could hear running, and I slowly let me breathe go; One, a head on the top of the horizon, raven black like my Arthur's; Zero, the handsome figure of Arthur appeared at the top of the escarpment where I waited, he swaggered over to the car and I let my breathe come in pants of relief, when he reached the car he b-lined for me and gave me a kiss on the forehead, short and very sweet, filled with emotion and love, he took my head in his hands like a soft caress and said

"Let's go home" a large smile on his face.

The car ride home was quiet, I was in the back seat with Alice and Arthur while Jasper was in the front passenger seat and Alec was driving. We moved in silence across the countryside, any thoughts of our recent killings were non-existence inside the calm of the car, I was leaning on Arthur, my head on his shoulder, he was busy sifting through the files Alec had procured.

"Did you have any trouble Alice?" he asked

"Hm?" she replied

"Taking out the captains" he clarified "did you have any trouble?"

"Not at all, there were only three of them" she said

"That's funny" Arthur said "There should have been six, and ten to each but we only had thir…" he trailed off, his voice filled with confusion as we all took in his words "Oh, God" he said in panic "Alec, hurry the hell up"

"Arthur what's the matter?" I asked in concern

"The others, the ones that should have been there but weren't, are attacking the city"

"What" I yelled "What makes you think that? They could just be hunting"

"Look here" he said as he handed me a piece of paper, I looked and it was a list of all the planned dates for attacks or raids, one of them was for today's date, in ten minutes.

"I would have seen it" Alice said in an tone reminiscent of someone who was cheated out of an easy victory

"You would have seen it if they planned to attack the castle, or the Volturi, you would have seen it if you knew they were there but you didn't" Arthur said to her. I pulled out my cell phone and I speed dialled Aro

"Hello Jane" his airy voice answered "I trust everything went well"

"Yes sir, everything is fine on our end" Aro must have sensed my hesitation

"But…?" he asked

"Sir, The city is about to be attacked" I told him

"When?" was his only reply, the fierceness back in his voice

"In ten minutes if their clocks are the same as ours"

"I trust you are on your way home?"

"Yes, master, ten, maybe twenty minutes"

"Right we shall hold them off until you return" and then he hung up, muttering something like 'damn them to the darkest ring of hell'. Alec had turned up the speed, Instead of going one hundred miles per hour we were pushing one ninety.

We arrived in Volterra five minutes after the raid on the city had begun, we could see the flames from ten miles away and that had only spurned Alec to increase his excessive speed to new limits. The gates of the city saw massive fights between vampires shards of vampire were falling all over the street, luckily we had been able to intercept them before the could wreck havoc upon the civilians, however there was still an occasional body on the street with blood leaking out of them and all over the street.

"Go to the garage" I told Alec, and he nodded and took the winding streets of Volterra at a hundred miles, he turned down onto the windy driveway and it was filled with Volturi hunched over and ready to fight anything that came their way. We weren't stopped until we reached the gate, I had a feeling it had to do with the number plate which was _Jane002. _When Alec parked the car in the appropriate spot we got and found Aro waiting for us he was wearing a suit his hair was pulled back into a ponytail, Felix and another over-sized vampire were flanking him.

"Come with me" he said gravely and all five of us nodded and followed him, Felix and the other guard taking up the rear. Aro was silent for along time it wasn't until we were outside the door that led into the Turret Room that he stopped and said "The have over-powered us thus far because we were trying to minimise the damage and exposure in the city, however we plan to take the down here, we have ensured that they have to take the tunnels to get here so Demetri says we have about another five minutes" he opened the door and led the way into the massive room.

"About time you joined us" Heidi called in jest "We were starting to believe you had defected"

"We were taking care of the other thirty, what were you doing?" Arthur called out and we all had a bit of a laugh from the exchange. Aro took his place at the back of the room facing the door, Renata had her fingers on him again, her usual look of nervousness had been replaced by a unfamiliar ferocity. The Cullen's and Denali's had taken up place just in front of Aro, Caius and Marcus, Alice and Jasper moved to join their family, Alec, Arthur and myself joined our family of Heidi and co. who were in front of the Cullen's but behind the guard that wasn't being used by the garage. There were fifteen of the grey cloaks present, normally there would be thirty but the other fifteen must be spread out in the city and by the garage. A break in the silence was made a Volturi guard running through one of the doors leading off into the castle, he made his way up to Aro before bowing

"My lord Aro, I report five casualties to us and ten to them"

"This is good news" he said "You may join your brothers and sisters" and the man ran down to join his fellows in the front line

"One minute, front door" Alice said aloud and I saw Aro nod

"My children" Aro pronounced "They come to our city and attempt to ransack our home, these revolutionaries must be put down, they believe we are weak, but I believe this fight will be over before the fight reaches your superiors, so now fight for your position, your honour and above the sacred law that was taught to me by my maker three millennia ago, what say you" A cheer erupted from the guard, the may be sycophantic but they did call this place home and at the end of the day no matter what they thought of Aro they believed in the idea of the Volturi. "Arthur when they are all inside would you mind closing the doors?" asked Aro

"Not at all sir" was his reply. I took the hand of my love and looked him in the eyes and he was looking back at me, my emotions got the better of me when I said

"Move in with me" Arthur was about to reply when right on time the enemy burst through the main doors and the fight erupted.

* * *

A/N: I can't believe I managed to get that done in one day, it seems that with a little time laziness becomes less of an issue. Remember to Review!


	19. Never Gonna Leave Me

Nothing Ever Stays the Same

Chapter 19- Never Gonna Leave Me

They came in, basing and battering and generally defiling the place I call home, I gave Arthur's hand a hard squeeze and I looked around. Isabella shield extraordinaire was focusing, perhaps she was using her power to protect us, Arthur was focusing hard as well though I didn't know what he was doing, but I had a feeling it would turn the tide of the battle. With everyone using their powers I decided to get involved and help out, reaching out with my mind I smote a vampire just as he was going to take a swing at one of my own then like a automatic rifle a shot quick jolts out in every direction, I heard the doors slam shut and new that all of the enemy were inside the hall. I took stock of what was happening and noticed that whenever one of the Romanians was about to land a hit on one of ours it was repulsed by a unknown force, now I knew what Arthur was doing, he was shielding the guards from attack. All fifteen of our guards present were occupied in battle, it seemed the Romanians had enlisted the help of the Saxon's or the Viking's because all of the vampires that we were fighting were the size of Felix or bigger.

With Arthur's protection the enemy could gain no ground, however due to the sheer size of them none of our guards could make any ground either. I saw Arthur was at his wits end for concentration, he was spreading himself thin I assumed, protecting fifteen guards spread out around the room, holding doors shut and I could tell that he had put a invisible wall between us and the Cullen's, Denali's and our leaders isolating them from the fight. I gave Alec a nod and he began his onslaught

"Heidi, Chelsea, Afton, Demetri, Santiago, Corin" I called and they moved into the fray, once I had seen which of the enemies they had marked, I used my power against the last nine until Alec's power took affect. With my power and the added support of the Executive guard we were beginning to make ground and overwhelm them, Heidi and her partner took down one of them before Alec's power came into affect, while Heidi's partner did a little duck and spin to take out the legs, Heidi had done a turn and gotten behind the beast, when she was behind him she did a jumping back flip and got her feet on his shoulders, before the beast could react she had her hands on his head and then she pushed off of his shoulders and with a resonating crack took his head with her, she landed gracefully, standing straight backed and with her legs crossed in a lady like fashion the head resting in the crook of her arm.

"Here we go" Alec said from his spot and in the next few seconds the great big brutes began falling down, they wouldn't normally have fallen down but since there was such a heavy onslaught upon them they were knocked down from various punches and kicks. A loud cry from Santiago was heard

"Aye Caramba" and I looked over just in time to see the figure of one of the Saxon/Viking's fall on top of him, it was quite comical and a great relief to see that happen, it eased the tension in the room. I looked over at Arthur as he broke his power, he clutched his head as if he had a headache and swayed a little on the spot but then he fixed himself up and hefted the monster off of Santiago. He then fell down on his ass and sat there his head in his arms, I leaned down to him my knees bent

"Are you okay?" I asked in a soft voice, the kind he soften used for me

"I don't feel to good" he told me "I think I need blood"

"I'll get you some" I said I stood up and looked around at the battle scene, there were several cracks in the floor and in the walls, the main door was hacked to pieces. The clean up had already begun and Afton had already lit a fire to burn the carcasses. I saw Heidi was busy doing nothing so I called her over.

"What do you need?" she asked sweetly

"Arthur needs some blood, he's not feeling to good, so can you get some for him" I said in a lowered voice into her ear

"Not feeling well?" she asked incredulously

"Can you just get some please" I pleaded

"Not a problem, I won't be a minute" and then she was gone, I knelt back down again and rubbed Arthur's back gently

"I feel so weak right now" he said to me "It was just so much effort to do everything" he looked at me and his skin was looking a bit translucent

"That's usually the case with powers when you stretch them" I explained to him "I mean when I first started it was no effort at all to attack one vampire, then I started doing it to multiple vampires that's when it hurt, that's when it weakens you, its like exercise the more you do it, the easier it will become"

"Thank-you" he said softly "And I'm sorry for asking you to move in with me" I blurted

"Does that mean you don't want me too?" he asked

"No, I do, but its just very fast for both us, so maybe save it for after the ball"

"Yeah, that sounds nice" he said and I pulled his foetal body in for a hug and I put my head on his shoulders. I heard someone stop in front of us and I noticed that someone wearing the skinniest stiletto's, I looked up and saw Heidi

"Heidi how can you honestly fight in those shoes?" I asked in awe

"Well some of us don't have to focus on using powers" she explained "here's your blood" she said holding out a litre thermos

"Thank-you very much" I said to her taking the warm thermos, she took her leave once it was in my hands and I gave the liquid to Arthur and he drunk it eagerly taking it all down in a matter of seconds

"Much better" he said and if by magic when he said that his normal pallor returned

"I think were even" I said and before Arthur could reply we were interrupted by Aro

"How are my two heroes?" he asked his voice back to its normal feathery self

"Just fine sir" I replied and Arthur beamed at him as his response

"Just wonderful, I am very proud of you both, so proud I think that Arthur has earned his rank, what do you think Jane?"

"I agree with you very much sir" I said my eyes looking at Arthur

"You both honour me, beyond words" he said bashfully, Aro sighed

"I'm glad I didn't keep you two apart, just wonderful, anyway if you would please clear out we do need to get this place cleaned up and you both have earned a break" I smiled graciously and stood up as Aro walked away from us Arthur stood up too and thrust the empty thermos into the arms of a unsuspecting guard

"Make sure that goes where it needs to be" he said in a commanding tone and the guard scuttled off, desperately confused with the situation, I held out my hand to Arthur, he took it and we went upstairs

"Nothing like death to bring two people closer" he commented humorously

"You don't know how true that is" I retorted and we both laughed as we continued our way to our rooms.

Our common room was empty when we got there, I shrugged it off and thought that everyone must already be in their rooms, Arthur and I broke our contact to go to our own rooms as well. Once in my room I closed my door softly and slumped against it, I was becoming hung up on this boy and it felt so good, but it felt unhealthy as well, my mind was screaming for me to slow down, as if it couldn't quite cope with opening up and it was true it couldn't it had only opened up for one person and that was Alec now I was asking for it to make a new door for a new person, I was more than ready for it but the process was a bit painful, perhaps I should treat it like a band-aid, though I've never had the displeasure of using one, I've been told sometimes its easier to just rip it off. But that being said, it might be easier said than done, hopefully not, but better be prepared.

Since I wasn't expected to work for the next while I decided on some comfortable clothes, nice clothes and admittedly, some very girly clothes in colours that frankly would feel odd, but since the underlings would not be able to get away with it I should be able to flaunt it. The dress I chose was pink, a very soft, pale pink, it was by Juicy Couture and was described as a cotton and silk-blend draped dress. I topped it off with a white cardigan and white ballet flats and one of my old Victorian pendants. I also let my hair down, releasing it free from the confines of the bun.

"So what do we do know?" Arthur asked from his seat on the couch

"We wait" I answered as I walked in, he turned around and essentially gawked, before essentially looking at me with dirty in his eyes. I sat down next to him on the couch and looked at everyone else who were waiting patiently for something to happen. Alec was in an armchair having a staring competition with the fireplace, there was no clear winner. Alice and Jasper were sitting on the couch opposite Arthur and I, everyone was wearing fresh clothes and to my surprise no one was wearing black. We had been sitting in silence for almost ten minutes before Arthur piked up

"I am going out for a drive, would anyone like to join me?" he asked nonchalantly

"Oh, god yes" I groaned in relief and we both got up

"We'll be back in a few hours" Arthur said and everyone seemed to grunt in response, Arthur raised an eyebrow "have it your way then" he mumbled before we exited the common room. The common room was quiet, most of the guard must be out cleaning up the mess left by the Romanians, but the few that were there definitely let their heads turn at the site of me in my casual clothes.

"I want to see how the clean up is doing before we leave" I told Arthur

"Sure, that's not a problem" he said casually "in fact while you do that I need to check reception for something" I noted that he was being secretive and that I also was not allowed to judge.

"Demetri" I called as I reached the Turret room, Demetri was just leaving, he looked at me, then cocked his head to the side and furrowed his eyebrows, I merely rolled my eyes "How is the clean up going?" I asked him, my voice firm and even, commanding despite my attire

"Just fine" he said cautiously "The wives are helping out at the moment, so its quite tense"

"Tense?" Arthur asked inquisitively

"Very much so" Demetri said in a hurry "And if you don't mind I really have to go" the caution in his voice morphed into anxiety as he spoke

"You're excused" I told him, and before I could blink he was gone, Arthur and I shared a look before we went in. To say it was chaos would not be a strong word, the grunts of the guards were darting backwards and forward fixing things, moving things, and trying not to break things. Standing on the throne dais at one end of the room was Sulpicia and Athenadora, they had fingers pointing out in all directions, their mouths moving non-stop screaming orders at the pions.

"I really have to get to reception" Arthur whispered to me urgently

"Don't you dare" I said attempting to grab at something by failing to get anything because he was gone "prick" I swore under my breath. I walked calmly over to the two elegant wives, when I was in front of them I cleared my throat and said.

"To think people consider you two to be vulnerable"

"We are" Sulpicia began "Very vulnerable, just not around our underlings or when it has to do with our home being ransacked by pillaging savages" her voice was very nondescript

"Ah…" Athenadora exclaimed "We will never get this completed with such debilitating pillocks" she looked down and saw me "Not you of course dear, just these pions" she said gesturing to the rest of the room "Is there anyth…" Athenadora was about to ask if there was anything I needed, but she was cut off by the sound of something scraping against the floor "Which helminth slubberdegullion, is scraping furniture across the floor" she shrieked, the two offenders were struck dumbfound by her insult and could not react before she said "Get out you vagabonds before I castrate you and put it on my man-less statues" the faces of the culprits dropped and they ran out of the room as fast as they could

"What if you just got the women working, as sexist as it is they may care more, because it only looks like the men making mistakes" I suggested to a fuming Athenadora who just collapsed into her husbands throne her fingers pinching the bridge of her nose

"That is an excellent idea Jane" Sulpicia said "Would you like to help?" she asked kindly

"I would" I said "But Aro gave Arthur and I the day off, so we are going for a drive"

"Well then, I wouldn't wish to disturb that" Sulpicia said with a smirk "You're dismissed" I bowed my head and then turned and made my way for the reception area.

Arthur was waiting tentatively for me at the reception. When I got to him I merely just glared at him

"I was going to come earlier, but then I heard Athenadora yelling and I decided against it" he tried to explain

"I could've used some support in there, because I was right next to Athenadora when she started"

"I'm very sorry, but it'll be worth it" he said

"How could you not being there possibly be worth anything" I berated

"You'll see" he told me simply, a tone of knowingness inflecting in his speech and in his smile. The rest of walk to the garage was uneventful, except that Arthur kept giving me the same smile, he was teasing me and I did not like it in the slightest for a number of reasons; one, I have a pathological need for control, two, I have a major superiority complex and thirdly, I know he is planning something and that conflicts with my first reason. But never the less, I kept quiet for the rest of the walk, not wanting to get into an argument because Arthur like me was obstinate and I knew I had no way of telling him to persuade me, sure I could torture him and it would have been a possibility if it wasn't Arthur, I had learned from experience not to torture him because it landed a unwanted dent in my pay-cheque. We got to the garage a few seconds after we had left the reception, Arthur walked all the way to his car and opened the passenger side for me

"Mi-lady" he said as he bowed and made a large sweeping gesture with his hand, I walked to the door and before I got in I made a little curtsey

"Why thank-you good sir" I said in my most sickly sweet voice. Once I was sitting I put the seat-belt on, silly human laws always serving to make my life difficult, I can vividly remember the days you didn't need a passport to get in and out of countries all you needed was transport. Arthur was in the car a second later and he had his seat belt on too and we were reversing, his car had a nice sound to it was soft but you could it was being restrained, it still wasn't as nice as my car though.

We had been in the car for a few hours when Arthur pulled off the main road and began driving up a narrow semi-sealed road, we were on that road for ten minutes before Arthur took another turn and drove up another semi-sealed rode, this one had a incline and we began climbing toward the top of what I guessed to be a mesa. He drove to the end of it, parking the car at just the point where it ended in a steep cliff-face, he engaged the hand-break undid his seatbelt and then opened the door to get out I grabbed his arm holding him in place while he had one foot out the door.

"What do you think you're doing?" I asked him harshly

"Getting out" he said smartly

"The suns out" I pointed out

"So?" he asked

"We'll be glittering like 50 carat diamond's"

"I ask again, so?"

"We'll be seen" I basically screamed

"No we won't" he said as casually as anyone could

"How can you be so sure?" I scoffed at him

"Because can you see anyone, because I can't, and if we can't see anyone what are the chances they'll see us, I can't even see the road from here" I conceded the point and let go of his arm, he got out walked around to my side of the car and opened the door for me

"I can do that myself" I stated

"I know you can Jane, I'm just being polite" I rolled my eyes at him and got out, once I was out he closed the door and led me over to the cliff where he just sat down with his legs hanging over the edge, we both glittered brilliantly in the afternoon sun, it was such a change because I normally avoided going in the sun because I thought the glittering thing was weak, but here I was bold as brass, glittering my little heart out. We watched the sun gradually make its way down the horizon, when it became twilight I turned and looked at Arthur, he was smiling absently at the disappearing sun.

"I hope you didn't bring me here to just watch the sun go down" I said to him as I moved closer

"Well I needed to get my car out of the garage as well" he said and I gave a small laugh

"Seriously" I told him

"Seriously?" he began "I wanted to get you alone so I could ask you something"

"And what would that be?" I asked sweetly, he smiled at me and reached for something in the inside pocket of his jacket, he pulled out a small velvet ring box and my eyes snapped open, my mouth formed a little 'o', he was not doing this to me, its to soon, much, much too soon. Arthur saw the look on my face and tilted his head a little bit

"What's the matter?" he asked

"That better not be what I think it is, because the answer is 'NO' a thousand times no" I said with hysteria creeping into my voice

"Why would it be no? you've already said yes"

"No I haven't, absolutely not, I would not agree to that" Arthur looked at me and his brow furrowed, I stood up quickly and began to move away, but before I was at the other end of the mesa Arthur caught me by the underside of my arm, but I kept struggling

"Here me out, because this isn't an engagement ring, hell it might never be a engagement ring, this is something different" I stopped and looked at him, he looked serious, but had a light smile playing on his lips

"Fine" and I stopped struggling and he let got and opened up the box for me to see. Inside there was a ring, it was gold and shaped in a love heart, my own heart sunk a little to see there wasn't any gems in the middle, but on further inspection I saw it was a little piece of pink paper that had the question 'Be my prom date' and the words yes and no, the yes was already circled. I looked up at Arthur and I smiled a big smile, the biggest that has ever been on my face since I became a vampire.

"Will you?" he said "Be my prom date?"

"We don't have prom" I said to him

"I know" he said "But I bought it in America and, well…you know" he was getting nervous, which looked really cute on him

"I do know, and yes I will" I said, and all the worry fell off of his face and were replaced by a huge smile, one that rivalled mine. He took the ring out of the box and I put my hand out and pointed the finger I wanted him to put it on, he slid it on slowly and it was a perfect fit, once he was finished he closed the box and put it back in his jacket pocket, I gave him a massive hug and as I let him go the last of the sun disappeared over the horizon.

We held hands in the car on the way home, our smiles not making any signal that they wanted to move. It felt weird because we were already going to the ball together before he gave me the ring, but now it felt so official so solid it felt definite, I was definitely going to the ball with Arthur he wasn't going to abandon me because our arrangement was too fickle, I realised something else as well, and it was that we were definitely mates and as much as I knew I would love him and how soon I was going to get there something in me reeled me back for one reason or another but I knew I had to take it another level, Arthur was already at that level and he'd got there by the ring now I needed to do something.

"So" I began, it was a little awkward, partly because I'd made it that way and partly because we hadn't spoken to each other since I said yes "There is this house"

"A house?" Arthur said

"Yes, a house, its in France, Nice to precise" I continued awkwardly

"And what is in this house?"

"Well, its my holiday house, and when this is all done I would like to go there with you, for a holiday" Arthur considered it for a second

"I've never been to Nice, but I've always wanted to" He said and he looked at me and smiled "So yes I would love to go on a holiday with you" After that brief interruption the rest of the car ride was silent with nothing but the soft purr of the engine making noise. I sat against the door, my face peering out the window smiling and feeling content for the first time in a long time.

When we got back to Volterra the door man told us to go straight up to Aro's office, it was then I remembered exactly what I was wearing and I felt embarrassed and I felt the strong desire to change, but I also knew that Aro wanted to see us immediately so my sense of duty overcame my sense of shame. Arthur and I walked side by side all the way up to the office, never straying more than a few inches from each other. We walked straight through the master's common room which was empty and strolled right up to Aro's office door, Arthur rapped on the door.

"Come in" Aro called, and Arthur, opened the door and let me walk through first before closing it behind him. The office had Caius, Marcus and the Wives sitting down, and I noticed tension visibly disappear from Marcus as we came within his radius. "Jane, Arthur" Aro said "I'm glad you're here"

"You asked for us sir?" I asked in a straight tone

"I did, something very important has come up and I need you two to assist"

"What is it?" Arthur asked smoothly

"The Romanian's want to organize a truce of some sorts, you and Jane will accompany Caius and Athenadora to Switzerland to negotiate" Aro told Arthur, I looked over at Caius and I saw him smirk I then looked over at Athenadora and she had a vague smile on her lip's, I then looked at Arthur who was looking at me he gave me a brief nod and we turned back to face Aro

"When do we leave?"

* * *

A/N: Could somebody, anybody review this time, it would be very much appreciated!


	20. Dark Waltz

Nothing Ever Stays the Same

Chapter 20- Dark Waltz

It was the afternoon before the ball, I sat stone still as Heidi put my hair up into a neat, but decorative bun, her hands moved quickly but she took her time to make it perfect. When Heidi was done she took a brief moment to appraise her work, she gave a quick nod and then passed me off to Chelsea who was doing make-up after a few minutes my make-up was done as well and a walked over to Corin who was helping us into our dresses, she took mine off the hook while I undressed quickly, I felt so exposed with nothing but my knickers on so I put my arms over my chest, Corin was back in a second and I had my dress on in ten. Once I had finished the rigmarole I sat down next to Renata who was already dressed and she passed me a wine glass of blood, I began sipping and I watched as Heidi, Chelsea and Corin continued getting ready.

"What time is it?" Heidi asked, her face not looking up as she fixed Corin's hair

"Four-thirty" I replied "You're doing fine on time, the boys won't be here for another hour and forty minutes"

"But be quick" Renata said from her seat "I want to see what I look like". I know what your thinking, isn't it odd that five girls getting ready for a ball haven't seen what they look like, well it's a tradition amongst us that none of us look at ourselves until we all can, so I still don't what I look like, and I can't cheat because every reflective surface in my common room was covered up, even the wine glasses were purchased as fogged glass so it wasn't reflective. While I waited I decided to put my jewellery on and Renata did the same. I put on my cat-clock gold necklace and a bracelet that I picked out and that Arthur insist he buy. I then slipped on my shoes, they were nothing fancy they were mid-heel, white satin and by Rupert Sanderson. The other girls were without a doubt looking fabulous and in Heidi's case far more fabulous than I would care to admit, my thoughts were interrupted by a knock at the door.

"Who is it?" called Heidi

"Its Arthur" the voice called back

"What do you want Arthur?" I asked

"I just wanted to know if you're ready for tomorrow"

"I am, don't worry, though I'll need your help when the ball is finished"

"Okay" he replied "See-you in an hour and a half" and then I heard walk away back up the stairs. As soon as he was out of ear-shot everyone in the room turned to me, each with a hungry look ravishing her features.

"What's happening tomorrow that's so important?" asked Renata as she moved in closer to me on the couch

"We're going to Switzerland" I said smoothly, it was truth and lie, the lie being the omitted kind "For a brief holiday" there were some gasps of surprise and a few mutterings.

"Hurry up and finish putting my make-up on" snapped Corin from her chair, I smiled discreetly to myself knowing the argument would be dropped, and because Corin was the last one to get ready it would be dropped until after the ball, by which point I'll be gone.

Once the drapes covering the mirrors had been removed, we all stared at ourselves in wonder for just a second, it seemed as if that vampiric beauty would always serve to surprise us. This was the first ball that I was properly going to, normally I would take on the role head of security and dress in my guard uniform and then there was the time, two hundred and seventy one years ago that Alec brought me to the ball, suffice to say we donned so much make-up and wore wigs so tall that it spoiled our beauty but now I truly felt beautiful. Heidi had dyed my hair blonde and gave me matching eyebrows, she had also given me hair extensions that you couldn't notice now my hair was in the bun. I had light metallic blue eye-shadow and glossy opaque pink lipstick on, Chelsea also saw fit to give me light pink rogue to give my cheeks some colour.

"Thank you so much" I said, my chest felt a flutter with something

"Aww, Jane" Heidi crooned as she took me into an embrace "You look gorgeous"

"You look more gorgeous" I told her and she laughed

"You're the boss" she said, keeping me in a hug

"That dress is wonderful Jane" Chelsea said "Who made it?"

"It's Lanvin, it was described as a bridal dress, but I thought I could pull it off as a ball dress" I told them

"How come you didn't go for a long dress?" Renata asked me

"I thought, that because I'm so short it would look a bit ridiculous" I answered in honesty

"Well you look beautiful anyway" said Corin "So don't mind them, we've just never seen you like this so we're all a bit shocked" I gave a slight chuckle of acknowledgement and then just continued to stare at myself in the mirror. For the next hour and twenty four minutes we sat around and chatted, and drank blood waiting for the boys to come down.

By the time the boys arrived our eyes were bright scarlet, we were for the most part all paired up. Santiago and Renata, Chelsea and Afton, Felix and Heidi and Corin and Demetri and of course Arthur and myself, only Alec was alone but he was taking on my responsibility of security tonight as well as covering our departure at midnight.

"You look amazing" Arthur said as he came in the door he gave me a hug and then still holding my arms he pulled back a little to continue appraising me "Just, wow" he said, a huge smile breaking out on his face.

"You don't look to bad yourself" I joked and he pulled me into another hug

"Don't be cheeky" he whispered into my ear. The truth was that Arthur looked amazing himself he had his hair combed neatly backwards his eyes, which were now scarlet sparkled with life his dimples were visible and he looked very dapper in his suit with just a simple black tie. He handed me a box and when I opened it I found this bracelet it was 14-carat gold, and in the style of a chain, in some of the links there were the most pretty diamonds.

"I know it's not a corsage, but I asked Alice and she told me what would go with your dress, the whole clairvoyant thing has it uses" he told me as I inspected the piece "I hope you like it" he added on the end in a nervous undertone

"I love it" I told him and he piqued up again.

"If you two have quite finished with the cavorting" said Felix loudly "I'd say its time to go downstairs" I gave Felix a quick sneer before he quickly hurried out the door, I looked to Arthur and he just smiled held out his hand and said

"Shall we" I beamed at him and took his hand, I felt so happy and so proud to have him.

It was tradition for us to be the second last group of the Volturi to arrive, arrival at the party we deemed to go in ascending order of rank and so the only people after us to arrive were the Elders. The Turret room, which is normally bland and foreboding was redecorated to look colourful and pleasant, the colour scheme was blue, silver and black and it set off nicely with the marble everything of the room. Behind the thrones on the raised dais was a massive Christmas tree, it was decorated the same as the room and it was twinkling brightly and it looked simply stunning. With everything that had occurred and the planning for everything that was going to happen I had forgotten that it was nearly Christmas, I had done all my Christmas shopping last month over the internet and I hadn't spared it a second thought for it since, especially since I had it sent to a gift wrappers and they had wrapped and labelled every present accordingly, it reminded me I had to pack Arthur's in my bag before we left because we would be in Switzerland for Christmas. As I gazed around the room I took in all the guests and managed to place all the Cullen's allies and a lot of the people who had been there to witness for us, the only people missing were the filthy dogs that had helped the Cullen's, everyone seemed to be looking at me and they were all alternating between glares and gazes, the Cullen's, bless them, were gazing at me, it seemed our meeting and subsequent travel with them had changed their tune about me and I made a note to go and talk to them later in the night. The Amazonians who once looked wild and crazed had swapped in the loin-cloths for this particular occasion and were looking pretty in some dresses. I made my way, dragging Arthur along quite roughly to our table where we sat down and where I attempted to hide myself. A vampiric waiter who I suspected was one of the Australian vampires hired to cater for the evening came up to us

"May I get you a drink?" he addressed us

"Yes, can I please have the twenty-four year old O-Positive" I told him

"And you sir?" he asked Arthur

"I'll have the same, thank-you" Arthur replied and with that he disappeared to the bar to acquire our drinks. The wonderful thing about vampiric balls is that you never have to wait longer than a minute for any order to arrive being that we are so exceptionally fast. We had our drinks in our hand thirty-seconds later and by then the rest of our group was seated and the waiter began taking their orders.

"You ran off fairly quickly" Demetri said to me

"People were glaring at me, and not just the people I've tortured" I told him

"So?" asked Felix sarcastically

"I just wanted to get out of their line of vision" I retorted

"Don't worry about them Jane" Heidi said putting a hand on my arm "I put the word out your looking to hurt anyone that looks at you sideways"

"Don't do that, that'll be counter-productive" I urged

"Jane, your picking a bad time to reform your image" Arthur told me

"I have a new haircut and a new hair colour, physically I'm a different person and so I want to reflect that in the image people have of me"

"The only thing that's changed is that you look like the angel you are" Arthur said softly'

"That's not going to work" I told him sternly

"Really?" he asked desperately

"Really!" I verified

"Damn!" and everyone at the table had a laugh at our brief exchange.

Once the laughs at our table died down I took the opportunity to look around the room, everyone was just about seated, our table was very central and close to the dais where Aro, Caius and Marcus would be spending most of their night, the dais also had an extra two seats added to eat for Athenadora and Sulpicia. The Cullen's weren't that far from us, sitting two tables to our left all nine of them looking equally as glamorous as we did, Alice caught me looking at them and she gave me a smile and a wave, which I returned rather sheepishly. There was movement on the dais as one of the older members of the guard (older than myself anyway) stood on the dais, his posture was regal and elegant.

"The Lords of the House of Volturi" he announced in a large thundering voice "Aro, Caius and Marcus" and then from the back of the room Aro, Caius and Marcus entered in a procession and ghostly made their way down to the dais where the stood in front of their respective thrones, the announcer piqued up again.

"The Ladies Athenadora and Sulpicia of the House of Volturi" and then everyone in the room turned in their seats to look as Athenadora and Sulpicia, the wives, silkily made their way to the dais where they were assisted by their husbands into their chairs. The announcer then made his way off of the dais and then diligently placed himself back in his seat, two tables to the right of us. Aro then moved forward to address us.

"Ladies and Gentleman, my fellow vampires" he opened "welcome tonight to my home, it is a great honour and pleasure to have you all here tonight to share in what I hope will become a permanent celebration" he took a pause and shifted his stature slightly "It has been almost a year since we all met in Washington a most dreadful occasion, that I will readily take responsibility for" Aro's voice after years of speech making was perfect in tone and pace, and while he did let emotion be conveyed, he allowed for his words to do most of the convincing.

"But tonight is the night, in which, we the vampire community, hopefully begin to make amends to each other, for all the wrongs we have caused each other over the centuries, and in some cases, millennia. As we are an old race, and undying race, we need to maintain good spirits with each other in order to survive and survive we must as we provide a balance to the world that cannot ever be replaced by any other existing creature" he took another pause "I for one, can honestly say that I have learnt for my mistakes and that I have also learned new lessons both instructive and intriguing, lessons that have led to a massive reform to the structure of the Volturi, reforms that have led to new additions and to some radical changes" he said at myself and Arthur "changes that have served to better us as flag ship for all our kind, though it seems our changes have come quite late in time, so much so, that we, the Volturi, find ourselves threatened once again by old enemies" he took another pause, shifted his stature and then looked at us, the crowd, brightly "But returning to the concerns of the evening, we have gathered you all here above all to have a wonderful and pleasant night and so that the unification of vampire society can begin it starts now and so do the festivities, so on behalf of the Volturi have a magnificent evening" Aro sat down on his throne and everyone in the room gave a brief moment of applause.

Another benefit of Vampire Balls is that there is no stopping for starters, dinner or dessert; this largely is due to a lack of creativity on vampires behalf to do something interesting with blood other than serve it out of goblets at human body temperature. The lack of food at these balls means that it is an entire night of dancing and socialising without interruptions, well except for the opening speech and the closing speech, which is the only reason we have allocated seating. The band began to play, naturally it was a vampiric orchestra and the singer that was singing was a vampire as well, it serves to say that you can't have a room of people obviously not people acting non-human and have a human band play. We started by just mingling on our own table, we weren't exactly the most revered vampires in the world so it was best to take it slow, in fact everyone was taking it slow, there was minimal mingling occurring; as I looked around I sighed and decided to take it upon myself…and Arthur. I stood up gracefully smoothed out the creases in my dress and offered my hand out to Arthur, he gave me a quizzical look

"We're going to talk to the Cullen's" I told him, he merely shrugged and stood up taking my hand

"Excuse us" he said to everyone on our table and I began to lead him to the Cullen's table "What are we doing?" he asked me in a undertone

"Mingling" I said boldly

"Right" he replied, his voice unsure of what to say.

The Cullen's all looked beautiful tonight, each of them wearing clothes to their strengths, they looked happy though I couldn't understand why. Before we got to their table Alice had gotten up and intercepted me, Jasper was right behind her.

"Jane" she squealed excitedly and gave me a massive hug, which I returned half-heartedly, partly because I was caught of guard and partly because I didn't know we were at the hugging stage of our budding friendship.

"Hi Alice" I said timidly from her embrace, she pulled back and beamed at me, Arthur and Jasper had now begun talking to each other, they seemed to get along well together

"Oh, Jane, you look beautiful" she said to me sweetly"Thank-you" I replied in earnest "you look gorgeous as well" she beamed at me again, her golden eyes radiating warmth and fondness "how are you?"

"I'm good, I'm just glad tonight is finally here, it means Bella will finally stop winging about it" I chuckled at Alice's comment "What about you, you've under gone a massive change, I mean you're blonde now, how about that?"

"Yeah, I'm good, I mean I really am, good" I told her, I was beginning to fall over my words "And it was time for a change and tonight seemed like a momentous occasion for it"

"Well you look fabulous" Alice said as she appraised me "Do a spin for me" and she lifted my hand above my head as I turned on the spot for her "very nice" she said distantly

"So" I began as my spin came to an end

"Yes, Jasper and I will start the dancing off" I gave a slight smile

"You do kno…" I began again

"That finishing other peoples sentences rude? Yes, I do, will it stop me? Never" I laughed "You and Arthur have a great time tonight before your mission" I gaped at her but she merely tapped her nose grabbed Jaspers hand as flitted off to the dance floor.

"That couple, are the most interesting couple I have ever met" Arthur said from behind me, I turned around to face him

"That's because we haven't had the pleasure of meeting ourselves" I told him and we made the rest of the way to the Cullen's table. Arthur and I stopped behind Carlisle and Esme, Esme was wearing a baby pink gown and she looked amazing

"How are we all this evening?" I asked nicely, Bella was looking adverse to my presence, Edward looked concerned, Emmett looked relaxed, Rosalie looked sour, Renesmee looked curious, Esme looked warm and Carlisle looked friendly; overall it was a good feeling I got from the table, at least better than I was used to.

"We are very well thank you Jane" Carlisle said

"You look very pretty Jane" Esme said

"Oh thank you" I told her "You all look great as well, I hope you all have fun tonight"

"Thank-you Jane" Carlisle said "You have been very kind to us of late"

"One would think you had a change of heart" Bella said with a snark

"I prefer to think I got a heart" I retorted and I got a laugh from Carlisle, Emmet and Rosalie

"We never had a doubt you had a heart Jane" Esme said kindly

"But I gave you every reason to doubt it" I told her

"We'll stop you there Jane, someone might think you've gone soft" Emmet bantered

"I'm still a bitch where it counts, never doubt that" I bantered in return and Emmet barked with laughter. I hadn't notice Arthur go over and talk to Edward and Bella, they seemed to relax a lot in his presence

"So Jane" Rosalie addressed me "between a blonde to a blonde, to blonde's really have more fun, it's a on going argument between Alice and I, I'm hoping you might help settle it" I moved around the table to Arthur and took his arm

"I'll let you know at the end of the night, but so far, I'd say they do, you all have a nice night, talk to you later" and then we were out of their way. I looked around the room now and the mingling had been kicked off and people were beginning to talk a lot more freely, Alice and Jasper were no longer the only people dancing to the music. Aro and Sulpicia were gradually making their way around the room talking to each of the guests briefly and individually. Arthur pulled me in the direction of Caius and Athenadora they saw us coming and stood up to greet us, once the greetings were done Arthur leaned in to Caius and Athenadora and said

"Everything has been organized, Alec is moving the bags into your Mercedes and he will cover our exit, be there for midnight" Caius put his hand on Arthur's shoulder and said

"Very good, I shall see you both then, but enjoy the rest of your night" then Athenadora looking like the most perfect vision imaginable in her Halston gown leaned into my ear and said

"You look stunning Jane, tonight will be the night" I was confused by what she meant and before I could ask her what she meant Arthur pulled me to the dance floor.

We took up positions and he began to spin me around, we moved seamlessly around the dance floor waltzing in unison with all the other couples on the dance floor, it was the closest I had ever come to magic the way we seemed to mould together to become one graceful and flowing unit, we let the music lead us because we were equals and neither of us needed to be led or lead. Arthur's eyes were now a dazzling shade of red and they didn't move from me, they were locked on me and it made me feel so special, he held me so gently but surely as if I were a beautiful and rare piece of art that he was moving around. For the first time in my existence I felt as beautiful as I surely looked, I felt loved and I felt like someone needed me, Alec and I had never needed each other we were just a comfort to each other, I truly loved my sibling and nothing would ever come between us but we were independent of each other now but with Arthur he needed me and I needed him and if this is what love felt like, I don't know why I ever chose to hate because I was on Cloud Nine right now. The rest of night continued in much the same pattern we danced, socialized and drank and I was extremely glad Arthur persuaded me to come because I felt so accepted not just by the Guard but by everyone, it seems that as long as you don't give them a reason to hate you they won't and I had many great conversations with various vampires, but I had to thank Arthur for that, he was the one who broke the ice for many of them, he was just so irrevocably charming that you couldn't help but warm up to him, he helped the Volturi greatly that night, he helped by breaking the stereotype.

At 11:45 Arthur came over to me and said simply

"It's time" I looked up at him and I nodded and then in a blink of a eye he had me in the air and we were floating toward the door out of sight of anyone looking for us, we landed right in front of the door leading toward the insides of the castle and we slipped through it discreetly and then we ran flat out toward our dorm when we got there we both hurried off to our rooms to get changed and to get our bags. I quickly zipped off my dress and slipped on my new one, it was made my Sandro and I was just so taken by it, I put on a pair of tights a cardigan and my favourite pair of flats grabbed my purse my suitcase and my Ray Ban sunglasses. Arthur was waiting for me in the common room

"How do you always beat me?" I asked slightly annoyed

"Telekinesis has its perks" he said simply and then he walked over to me and picked up my sunglasses "We are such a couple" he said

"How come?" I asked him, he didn't answer me, he just pulled out his own pair of Ray Ban's and I laughed, by this point Arthur would normally back away giving us space but this time, something was different, the energy between us wasn't repulsive, it was attractive and Arthur gave me a long look in my eyes

"You looked beautiful tonight, you look beautiful now, you always look beautiful" he said softly

"I only look beautiful to you" I said reluctantly

"That's the perfect situation then isn't it" he breathed, I looked at him and then simultaneously we closed the distance between each other, stopped when we were mere millimetres from each other and then pressed in for the kiss, it was a chaste kiss, we moved our lips very carefully not moving a single fibre not our heads, not our bodies, we pulled apart slowly

"So that's what Athenadora meant" I said quietly our foreheads touching softly against each other. For the first time in well over three hundred years I felt just for the sake of feeling.  


* * *

A/N: Sorry for the long delay on the story, but hopefully chapters should be coming up more frequently now. The end has been planned, see my profile for the titles of each of the final chapters and of course to see what everyone was wearing for the ball.


	21. New Perspective

Nothing Ever Stays the Same

Chapter 21- New Perspective

My first kiss, MY first kiss, the sweetest moment in my life and it got ruined by a mission, typical me, typical, typical me I just can't help but sabotage myself in everything personal that I do, but dear sweet Arthur sensing my annoyance says to me

"It won't always be like this, there won't always be a mission" I sigh and he embraces me "come on we need to get going now" and with that we make our way to the garage this time hand in hand with the cheesiest grins on our faces. Our bags were floating behind us, courtesy of Arthur, who was wearing a untucked grey check shirt as well with slim fit black pants that were tucked into these leather mid-boots and a black coat.

"Burberry?" I asked him

"Burberry" he confirmed and I laughed, he was much too obvious sometimes and he may try to deny it but he was seriously upper echelon and it reflected all too well in his dress sense and his manner of speaking, where mine was accumulated over years of being at the top his was from years of being treated like a irreplaceable prince, which I now had to admit he was, a prince sans the shiny armour and valiant steed, maybe a Ferrari would count as a valiant steed? When we were in the garage we quietly snuck behind the guards towards Caius' car when we were there I saw Alec had already packed Caius and Athenadora's bags in the car, Arthur then placed his suit case and mine on top of theirs very quietly with his telekinesis and then closed the boot of the car silently. The point of this part of the mission was to leave the city without anyone noticing, it was delicate enough that we were going to negotiate with the Romanians let alone having everyone know what we were doing, it would make a dangerous situation even more perilous. Arthur had disappeared into the dark of the garage to wait for Caius and Athenadora, I wasn't so privy to the detail of why Athenadora was coming though I knew I would be glad for her company over the coming weeks, as much as I loved Arthur and respected Caius I knew that they were two people who would get their digs in anywhere they could just for a laugh, they both loved to wind people up. I saw something move in the distance and then Alec emerged from the shadows

"You can make noise now" he said to me "I…uh, knocked the guards out until your gone" I smiled at my brother

"I love you, you know that" I said as I took him in a hug

"You kissed him didn't you" he stated, his arms hanging limp next to him

"Maybe" I replied shyly

"You so did, don't even try to lie"

"Fine, I did, but I still love you""I know Jane, I know" he said returning my hug "And I love you too" we stood there for a minute and then when it was 11:57 we pulled apart "You're blonde" he stated, I twirled my hair on my finger and I smiled

"Do you like it?" I asked him

"It looks great, its just different" and then we heard noise in the distance and then Arthur, Athenadora and Caius all emerged from the shadows. Caius looked like a business man in a long, double breasted wool coat, pants and dress shoes and Athenadora looked unseasonably fabulous wearing a green Oscar De La Renta wool dress with a large cowl, she added a belt to make the dress more shapely, she had on tights and ridiculously angled Christian Louboutin pumps and had a very large Burberry bag.

"Great timing you two" I said

"Well for some of us" Athenadora began "we have to dress expensively to look fabulous"

"You say that like she's poor Dora" said Caius "I should know she isn't, I've been signing her pay checks for long enough" he jested and I heard Arthur snigger he came up and gave Alec a hand-shake-hug-thing that males do and then came over and gave me a kiss on the cheek

"We should be off" he said as he opened the car door for Athenadora, Athenadora slid into the car, her bag perched on her lap and all of a sudden she looked like something out of a early 20th century novel her hair was put in gentle curls all down her back and it gave her this very classic look that suited her very much. Arthur darted to the other rear passenger door and opened it and Caius stepped in, he then came up to me "Do you want to drive?" he asked

"No, you go ahead" and then he stepped into the drivers side and started the car.

"Be safe now" Alec said "I won't be there to protect you" and he gave me a massive hug

"I think I'll be better off for it" I jested as I returned the hug

"Well then keep Arthur safe, just because he's your mate doesn't mean he can't be my wing-man" I laughed at him

"Love you lots" I said and then breaking from the hug I jumped into the car and then we were off pulling out of the parking spot Arthur began to move us forward and I looked out the mirror to see Alec waving good-bye.

As we were pulling out of the garage I noted that all of the guards were stood there with dreamy and distant looks on their faces.

"Midnight, we made the perfect time" said Arthur from the drivers seat as he egged the car on faster, the car itself was like a animal of prey darting through the streets of Volterra elegantly and silently. Arthur pulled out onto the main street forty one and three quarter seconds before the first guest left and then before we knew it we were speeding out of Volterra.

"What's the plan for getting us there Arthur?" asked Caius from the back

"Taking the SR68 onto the A12 through Milan then picking up the E35 straight to Luzern" Arthur answered smoothly

"How long will it take?" asked Athenadora

"At the speed limit 7 hours and 31 minutes. But I think I may be able to cut that down to about 6 hours and 40 minutes, depending on how busy the border is, speaking of which" he said looking into the rear view mirror at Caius "I'll need you to jump into the driver seat for good measure at the border, if that's okay with you?"

"It's not a problem at all" Caius said simply and we continued on our way. The ride itself was very comfortable stopping only for fuel and bantering back and forth about each of our tastes in music because we were rotating MP3's to listen to every hour or so. At first light we put our sunglasses on, Arthur and I matching, Caius looking like something out of the Matrix and Athenadora looking like a 1950's starlet. Just before the border we did a in car swap of drivers, it went very smooth considering the logistics, then after the border Caius and Arthur swapped over again. The speed we travelled at was consistently over the limit and Arthur only slowed down when passing through large towns. We eventually arrived in Luzern, Switzerland 6 hours and 42 minutes later, we navigated the streets until we finally arrived at our hotel, The Palace Luzern, it was a stunning building that had a real feeling of decadence. We checked in and made our way to our rooms, Arthur and I would be sharing a Junior suite while Caius and Athenadora would be in the Palace suite.

"You two don't have to much fun now" Caius taunted as Arthur and I stopped in front of our room, he and Dora then sauntered off to their own room. Arthur opened the door and then we stepped inside rolling our bags in behind us. It was spacious and we had stepped into a living room, we dropped our bags on the spot and Arthur mentally closed the door, we then made our way cautiously made our way through like something was going to jump out and try and kill us and then we saw the bedroom, the room itself was gorgeous, but the think that made me want to freak out was the fact there was only one bed.

"One bed" Arthur said dully

"Yeah" I replied in the same tone and then it hit me "Wait why do we care? We don't sleep" I looked at Arthur when I finished and he visibly relaxed

"Oh" he drew out as the wall of realization hit him as well "That simplifies things".

About an hour later, Arthur and I had both settled into the room and there was a knock on the door, Arthur answered it and I was right on his heels peering out the door, it was just a bell-boy and he stood at the door trembling slightly and I couldn't put my finger on why.

"How can I help you?" Arthur said reassuringly, obviously he hoped the boy would stop quivering, so did I, although I had drunk plenty last night the adrenaline that was spiking his blood was making it all the sweeter and I would soon be tempted to try some.

"A Mr. Caius sent me" he cringed as he said Caius' name, I sometimes forgot that Caius was a frightening individual, this is because no one is quite as frightening as I am, Alec is too freaky and Arthur has been around long enough to make himself a reputation, although I think most vampires in the Volturi are wary of him. I looked at Arthur and he looked at me, he rolled his eyes and shrugged in a looks-like-I'm-going-to-have-to-force-the-information-out kind of way.

"And what did Mr. Caius say?" he asked in a patronizing tone, this was amusing because I'm fairly sure that this human was older than Arthur, Arthur was now giving the boy an encouraging look, the look a mother gave to a child to get them to talk

"He said" he was stuttering now "He said to meet…him and a Miss Athenadora for…dinner" Arthur now shifted his expression to a well done face with a re-assuring smile

"Did Mr. Caius say when and where?" Arthur asked of the boy softly

"At eight at the restaurant downstairs"

"Now" Arthur began with composure and authority "Look sharp, and remember that is Mr. Caius scares you again you come and talk to us and we'll sort him out"

"Yes Sir" the boy replied politely, he had now regained some of his former possession, he then gave a quick bow before quickly making his way back to where he came from.

"What an odd specimen" Arthur said before I broke out in fits of laughter "What?" he demanded "Look at the poor child, there is nothing funny about it"

"Its not him" I said in between fits, Arthur cocked his head slightly, his expression confused "Its you" I said "He was older than you and yet you treated him like a child, you even referred to him as a child" The confused look on Arthur's face then turned to amusement as his eyes lightened and a sly smile broke out on his face

"I suppose it is funny, isn't it" I will never forget that moment, the moment I laughed the hardest I laughed the hardest I had in a few decades and also the first time in centuries it wasn't an evil laugh brought on by pain.

However my relief from pain as it were was very brief because at six o'clock I was faced with the task of choosing my outfit for that night, promising grief and pain in surplus. It is a this point important to remember that I nor any other member of the guard work for the Volturi "on the house" we are paid a salary and in my case a very generous one and so I have worked up a mint for a bank account, therefore it is very easy to buy very ostentatious and very expensive clothing but because we are a covert organization working on behalf of a species that "doesn't exist" we are encouraged to be subdued versions of ourselves especially when in full human view for example tonight when I'm going to 'dinner' at a hotel restaurant. After much ruffling of my restricted closet I picked out my ruffled silk-chiffon dress from Just Cavalli a pair of Christian Louboutin Tinazata 120 cut-out boots a pair of tights and a bag I managed to fold up to a quarter of its size, I let my hair hand loose and frame my face and put on some make-up on very lightly, though I didn't need it, it was more human to use it. When I walked out of the bathroom and through to the main sitting room Arthur was sat down and waiting, hair done as it always was wearing his new pair of leather low-top converse, dinner pants and a dinner jacket and to my surprise a t-shirt.

"A t-shirt?" I harangued him "seriously?" he looked at me with wide eyes and cocked his head

"I checked the place out, this will be fine" he said calmly

"But a t-shirt?"

"This is a nice t-shirt" he rebuked, I scoffed and rolled my eyes and raised my hands in defeat

"Fine, but we have to go or we'll be late" I told him, Arthur stood up and beamed at me before offering me his arm and set off.

The dinner was terrible, but that might be just forcing food down my throat that just doesn't want to go down Arthur and I made the intelligent choice for vegetarian food while both Caius and Athenadora ate meat and in my experience meat eating was not in the least pleasurable for vampires. Once we finished dinner we got into business like we were cast in a bad movie.

"The Romanian's have organized the meeting for after Christmas on the 27th at a restaurant during the day, I checked ahead and its going to be overcast that day, however it doesn't mean we shouldn't be careful" Caius began "I don't trust them and so we proceed with the utmost caution, they are old-fashioned and so Machiavellian it makes my teeth hurt, however their old fashioned isn't our old-fashioned so we can't expect laws of chivalry or even habeas corpus"

"We need to show them the changes the Volturi have made so while you both will still be dressing in black you will wear something modern and classy" Athenadora told us "While Caius and I will dress very bright and colourfully, this is one way we intend to catch them off-guard"

"The other" Caius continued "Is you Arthur, they very well know what Jane is capable of and so she is of little surprise, and while we do not know what they are capable of the nature of your power is such that anything that can get past you is vulnerable to Jane. This gives us a unprecedented advantage, but because we wish this to remain a surprise we would ask you to first keep your powers to yourself and secondly disguise the nature of your relationship a secret in front of the Romanians"

"Your relationship gives you power, in that you trust each other wholly and you can systematically work off of each other and make a deadly offensive force" Athenadora finished "And also we're all booked in for Christmas dinner so we expect you down here for that and it's themed for the something odd like "contemporary middle ages" so interpret that how you will and dress accordingly"

"Is that all?" I asked coolly

"No, you may leave if you wish" Caius said, and Arthur and I rose gave a slight bow and then walked out with each other keeping at a reasonable distance just on case there were Romanians lurking.

It was Christmas morning and I was discreetly throwing away our room service while Arthur had a shower. We were getting ready to go over to Caius and Athenadora's suite as Athenadora adored Christmas even though she was older than the tradition, only when we were there could we share and open presents we had for each other. Donning the girlish dress I had which was some peachy silk and crepe pleated number by Chloè, I added some peep-toe pumps from Louboutin, some tights and a coat and waited for Arthur who was going to take another minute or so. A minute later wearing a white sweater, white slim fit jeans and a pair of white moccasins his hair pushed back and his eyes gleaming red was Arthur, he looked like a ghost, but to hand to him; a good looking ghost.

"One thing that I love" he said as he walked over to me, three beautifully wrapped presents under his arm "Vampire flat packing, I can make four weeks worth of clothing disappear into a very small space with little trouble" he paused to consider something "well, I did break a few suitcases learning but other than that" I gave him a small smile picked up my bag and one neatly wrapped present that I couldn't fit in it and stood up.

"Now that we are ready, shall we go" I said giving him a coy smile

"We are expected" He joined and he gave me a small kiss on the lips as we walked out of our room and toward Caius and Athenadora's anticipating an onslaught that would be Christmas with parental figures, something I hadn't experienced in decades and something I guessed Arthur had no memory of.

Knocking on the door of their room I felt slight trepidation as I had no idea I had never really celebrated Christmas since becoming a vampire, I mean I had exchanged gifts and prayed on some unfortunate debauched soul on Christmas with Alec but beyond that nothing, and now here I was standing next to my good-guy mate, I was wearing some painfully girly dress and knocking on my master's door about to celebrate this mortal holiday. I briefly reflected on it, thinking of the complete 180 my life had done in the past 8 months or so. The door to the suite flung open and there in all her classical beauty and vampiric wonder stood Athenadora wearing something she must have brought from the fifties, it was a dress with a noticeable full skirt and a large bow tied around the waist, her hair was done up in a bee-hive. Arthur and I gave each other a look and I knew we were both questioning why we had come.

"Welcome you two, Merry Christmas" she said brightly as she gestured us in. As soon as we were in we saw Caius looking his bitter self on one of the couches his hair tied back looking like some 20's business mogul.

"Merry Christmas" Arthur replied with much gusto "How are you and Master Caius today?" "We are very well, aren't we Caius?" Athenadora replied giving Caius a foreboding look

"Yes, we are indeed, how one might say? Jovial" Caius said sardonically from his chair, Athenadora shifted her gaze back to Arthur and I, her warning look becoming a warming look almost instantly.

"Presents time!" she exclaimed "I have been waiting so patiently all morning for you two to show up"

"Well we best get started then" I said somewhat begrudgingly, and start we did.

The exchanging of presents was not as horrid as I had imagined it would be, normally I would just exchange presents with Alec and then we would go hunting together. I had bought Athenadora and Caius a couple present, because I couldn't think of something individual to get them so I bought them both a Robert Rauschenberg original, Caius and Athenadora were both art connoisseurs and I knew that they didn't own this particular painting. Arthur thinking along similar lines as myself had got Caius a collection of 'lost' World War 2 Nazi propaganda posters, Caius looked upon the present sentimentally

"You know" he said to Arthur "World War Two was the last time I interfered in human affairs, suffice to say Aro has kept a tight leash on me and human affairs since"

"I did know that" Arthur replied "Marcus told me it was the least cantankerous you've been in centuries" Caius reply was simply a snigger as he gazed down at the treasures. "And you, Athenadora, I was also told that you are a bit of a Psychology nut like myself and I got few things from my adoptive farther, however I did get one very important artefact" Arthur said as he handed a elegantly wrapped package over to Athenadora "Jane also said you were looking for it" It then clicked, Arthur had given Athenadora a first-edition of Wilhelm Wundt's _Gundriss der Psychologie_

"Arthur you didn't" I said looking him right in the eye, and he merely smiled as Athenadora carefully unwrapped her present, when she had she simply stared at it in dumb wonder

"Oh. My. Maker" was all she managed "Arthur, I cannot accept this, this is too much"

"Of course it isn't" he told her firmly "Its too much for me to hold onto, you have the means and the care to treat it properly. But if you won't accept it as a present, ignore the wrapping and take it as an investment"

"Investment in what?" Caius asked earnestly

"I know Jane will never leave the Volturi, and you don't need Chelsea to ensure that, and as long as this book is in your possession as well as Jane in your castle, I am saying nor will I never leave so you can make Chelsea leave me alone now"

"Very well" said Athenadora "I will take the utmost care of this"

"You can read it as well, it is yours after all" Arthur then added. After that moment Caius and Athenadora gave their gift to us.

"Now" Athenadora began "that you two are mated together, Caius and I decided, even though it is unorthodox, to buy you a house"

"With Aro's blessing of course" Caius interjected

"Of course, and because Arthur, you are from Ireland and Jane, you are from England we decided it might be easiest if we bought a house in France, Paris to be more precise" Arthur and I turned to face each other at precisely the same moment and could only stay simply shocked, finally I managed to speak

"I think, Lady Athenadora, that this is too much, we couldn't possibly accept this"

"But of course you must" said Caius "This is not something to be given lightly, and you Jane have earned it well and truly, and I think that Arthur here will earn it very soon" Then as Caius turned to Athenadora to give her his present Arthur turned to me.

"Here" he cooed into my ear "for our first Christmas" and he handed me two packages, ones was very large and smelt of leather, and the other was greatly smaller but still quite heavy. I opened the larger box first and inside was a beautiful leather coat, I looked up at Arthur

"Because with the new dress code, you needed something new to make you look badass" I laughed and gave him a kiss on the cheek. The other package before I opened I gave another quick glance and he said "That, is because first edition Wundt isn't the only rare and expensive thing I took from my adoptive farther when I left for my book tour" I glanced back down at my present, my interest piqued, I carefully opened the package gently sliding my fingers down the folds, prying the scotch tape from the paper and then gracefully pulling the paper away from the object. I uncovered it to find the most amazing thing, the most beautiful present anyone could ever give me, again it was a book, or rather a diary the signature engraved on the back said it belonged to Fredrich Nietzsche.

"No, no, no, no, no, no, You cannot give this to me…you simply CANNOT give this to me Arthur" I exclaimed, almost throwing the diary back at him in panic.

"You'll find I can, and I am. This was my most valued possession, and while it isn't prudent to put all of ones eggs in their proverbial basket, I want my most valued possession to be with the person I value and trust most of all"

"Arthur" I whined "I will not accept this" and then Arthur simply leaned forward, placed his hands on top of mine and kissed me on the lips softly, pulled back and said

"Just take the fuckin' thing, for me it resembles nothing but pain and because I am giving it to you it won't bear pain for anyone anymore"

"Fine" I said "And thank-you, very, very much" and then I gave him a kiss.

"Jane" Athenadora called "its time to go shopping, because I didn't tell you that tonight's dinner is Black Tie"

"Lady Athenadora, its Christmas, nowhere will be open" I told her

"Yes well Jane, when you're me, and you're over three thousand years old, obstacles like Christmas don't leave shops closed, now get you're coat and leave you're wonderful mate alone, he and Caius have other plans" I really didn't want to go shopping, but I supposed that firstly Athenadora was my superior and I had to do as she said, and secondly I had better get used to shopping now that uniform regulations had changed for me and then thirdly I had better get used to spending time with Athenadora because I figured that with the new rules Athenadora and Sulpicia seemed to be getting more freedom. The streets of Lucerne were barren and their high-street for shopping was cold dark and dank, and I couldn't help but feel a little exposed and vulnerable, suffice to say if I knew I was going shopping I wouldn't have worn such bright colours and girly clothes and my six inch heels weren't exactly appropriate for any fighting that may or may not occur. As Athenadora promised, the shops were not closed, at least not for us and there was an attendant in each one waiting to open the door and wait on us beck and call. As we were walking back to the hotel Athenadora started talking

"Arthur is a very sweet boy isn't he?" she asked

"He is" I replied

"He's perfect for you, you know that right?"

"How do you mean" I asked in reply

"In the twelve hundred years I have known you, not never once have I seen you melt and swoon for anybody like you did today for him, he balances you, he calms you and more importantly he trusts you, which if what Marcus has told me is true, is no easy feat"

"I know" I told her "the most pressing question though, is do I balance him, do I calm him, do I trust him"

"I think you already know the answer to that one" she said frankly "I don't think anyone truly understands the depth of Marcus' power, but once again, from what he tells me you two are perfect, ying and yang and perhaps just what the Volturi need after these long millennia"

"What's that?" I inquired

"Love" she stated and I looked up at her confused "Jane, the Volturi has become cold and heartless, as well as celibate, we need love and compassion, and we won't find unless there is love and compassion in our ranks, what do you say to that?"

"I think, you're right. I mean its only been a few months and already I feel less like being cruel, why do you think that is?"

"I think its because that despite the fact that Arthur is twelve hundred years your junior, he's your mate because he can teach you something. Arthur is kind, patient but above all he never points blame, he never gets angry or upset without an extraordinary reason and you were and are quite the opposite"

"Thank-you, Athenadora, I really do appreciate this conversation its been really helpful" Athenadora smiled at me warmly, motherly

"Feel free to come to me anytime you'd like to talk, as you may know, I have a wealth of knowledge and very little outlet to share it" We talked some more about meaningless things all the way back to the hotel, and a must say that I have warmed a lot to Lady Athenadora.

As twilight spread across the sky, Athenadora and I were in her room getting ready while the boy's were in another waiting for us. Athenadora was wearing a grey, pleated, satin gown by Lanvin with a red belt nipping everything in at the waist, she also had heels by Giuseppe Zanotti and a bag by Yves Saint Laurent, she had her hair in a loose but eloquent bun that was hanging to the side and she had put foundation on us to make us look darker than we actually were. I was wearing a strapless Valentino dress and had on Robert Cavalli heels, I had a Valentino bag to match my dress and I was wearing my hair straight down since it only came to my shoulders.

"Remember" Athenadora said to me before we exited our changing room "Our job is not to be the best looking people there, our job is to blend into the background, there will be people dressed more lavishly than we are, but just take solace in the fact that collectively we have more money than they could ever dream of having" and then we left the room and met the boy's outside. Caius was wearing his hair down and had a very neat and trim suit on that he had donned with a cravat. Arthur on the other hand looked ravishing in a slim fitting suit, his hair brushed back and a tie that matched my dress (that I had bought when I bought my dress)

"You look gorgeous Jane" Arthur said as he took my hand, pulled me close to him as if we were to dance and then kissing me sweetly on the lips "I am the luckiest vampire in the world"

"Thank-you Arthur, you look rather dashing yourself" I replied, and he beamed at me.

"This is going to be a fun night" he said slyly.

And it was a fun night, a night I will remember forever (and not just because of my vampiric memory.)

* * *

A/N: I am so eternally sorry for this being inexcusably late. All I can say is that I have extended the story by another chapter and that even though this is all horrible, smutty goodness next chapter is going to move the plot along quite quickly, introduce some new vampires with extremely cool powers and get some proper action and violence though there won't be any character death for a few more chapters. I hope you enjoy and I promise I will have the next chapter up much, MUCH sooner than I put this one up. Lots of Love xxx.  
*Remember to review, I haven't gotten any in a while and I feel a bit lonely.*


	22. Famous Last Words

Nothing Ever Stays the Same

Chapter 22- Famous Last Words

The Christmas party was great fun, Arthur and I had danced and mingled all night and the result was breathtaking, it seemed true to Athenadora's word that Arthur was indeed changing my life for the better, I had never smiled so much, nor spoken to so many human strangers before. But today was going to be a grim day for us, today was the day we had our meeting with the Romanians, my effervescent mood was beginning to fizzle out and I had only politics to look forward to. Arthur was busy working away at the present I had given him, which was a new laptop computer, I had figured that he wasn't using his old one for fear of being traced but today he happily typed along transferring files from one to another.

"I still feel like I should get you something else" I said to him from across the room, I still felt as if me giving him a laptop hailed in comparison to the fact he had given me a priceless gift.

"Not at all" he soothed back "You gave me exactly what I needed, and if there is one thing you should know, its that I'm a bit Epicurean in my ways and I don't like having anything extravagant. I'm simple, so for all intents and purposes your gift to me is perfect"

"But still" I retorted "That's an expensive laptop, but you've given me a priceless artefact, that no one even knows exists"

"Precisely" he replied, he looked up at me "No one knows it exists, therefore no one has placed value on it, therefore it is worthless to anyone who can't verify its validity, and since you met Nietzsche and know what his handwriting is like you at least can place value and validity on it. Besides with any luck you are probably mentioned in it"

"Wouldn't you know if I was?" I asked

"No, in the case of you, he would have described you as extraordinarily beautiful girl he met when he was younger, and there are a few beautiful girls mentioned in that" Arthur smiled at me "And as I said yesterday, that book was nothing but pain and bad memories and at least by giving it to you I can rid myself of a few demons and give you one heck of a present" I smiled back at him

"Fine, I suppose I can accept it now" I told him "But now we have to get ready for our lunchtime negotiations with the Romanians."

Athenadora had reminded us of the fact that today was business and we were to dress as such and to not take after what she was going to wear, so I but on a dark blue coat dress by Oscar de la Renta, a pair of black tights, a pair of mid-heel Jimmy Choo's (because as Arthur so aptly put it, you never know when shit will go down), I put on the ring Arthur got me, and finished with a Maison Martin Margiela blazer and my Jimmy Choo bag. Arthur was wearing a simple suit that had a one button blazer, as well as a skinny tie, the suit itself was slim fitting and made Arthur look lean and sleek.

"Ready to go?" I asked him, he nodded took my arm and then we both left our room for Caius and Athenadora's room so we could take up our official post as guards and escort them to the meeting. I knocked on the door and stood by Arthur patiently "and you know" I added "that we can't be seen to be mates or they might try to exploit it" Just as I finished Caius and Athenadora walked out of their room, Athenadora looked fabulous and somewhat out of place in a red ruffled silk dress by Notte by Marchesa as well as Louboutin heels that were encrusted with crystal, as a fact, the only appropriate thing that she was wearing was a black Alexander McQueen coat. Caius looked dapper and dressed perfectly for the occasion in a suit and trench coat.

"I remember when we went to these kinds of meetings wearing chain-mail and tunics, much more amicable then suits and coats" Caius grumbled as he walked out of the room, he looked up at Arthur and I and said "Well you ready to go, I don't want this to take longer than it has to I just want to start a war and go home"

"Very well Master Caius" Arthur said "If come with me and Athenadora you go with Jane than we won't have any delay's." The car was waiting for us when we got to the lobby, apparently Arthur had called ahead for it, we got in and I started driving, since that even though Arthur was a good driver I had still been driving since cars were invented. When we pulled up to the restaurant we were meeting the Romanians I could smell that they were already here, waiting for us I gave the key's to the valet and then I stood by Arthur ready to defend our Masters with our lives, but something felt wrong, because for the first time in my life I had a strong urge not to defend my Masters but for the man standing next to me.

When we got into the lobby the first thing I spotted was the wretched vermin Vladimir and Stefan.

"Welcome Volturi" Vladimir sneered at us "What a surprise you came, especially you Athenadora why I haven't seen you properly since…" he went to continue but Athenadora cut him off

"Since I helped in the ransacking of your castles, I know, I remember with perfect precision and it warms the cockles of my lifeless heart to this day"

"She always did have a way with words" Stefan murmured to Vladimir

"It would be wise to not hide your words from us tonight Romanian" Caius said dryly from behind me

"Tonight my dear Caius, you haven't got the high ground especially since all you bring to defend yourself is a bitch and some unknown worm" Stefan spat and I couldn't hold back my own tongue as the Romanians were getting on my nerves

"I would tread carefully Stefan, we are not as weak as you imply, and the bitch I am is not afraid to put you back in your place" I told him in as passive a voice as I could manage

"What is your name then unknown?" asked Vladimir

"Arthur" Arthur replied stiffly

"And what can you do?" Stefan asked

"Nothing I won't have to show you if you behave" Arthur quickly retorted, and I beamed at him on the inside so proud that he had picked up on the superiority vibe that Athenadora, Caius and I were all instilling

"Mind your tone with us child, we command more respect than you do" Vladimir jeered to which I could only reply

"We'll see" Vladimir and Stefan's eyes glowered with anger as they seethed bitterly inside of themselves

"Well in any case, our new Masters are waiting for you"

"Then it would seem" Athenadora said "that you are making us look bad by not introducing us sooner" And with that their argument ended they merely gave sarcastic smiles as they bowed, turned and led us toward the room.

The room itself was quite large, though it seemed to be diminutive considering that there were four very large proportioned men sitting at the table accompanied by two menacing women and for a split second I felt a twinge of fear for the to slight Romanians who had 'gone to bed' with these monstrosities.

"Master Tiberin and Lady Elisabeta" said Stefan "I present to you Caius one of the leaders of the Volturi coven, his wife Athenadora and their guards Jane and Arthur"

"Caius, Athenadora, Jane and Arthur these are our leaders Tiberin and Elisabeta" Vladimir then said rounding off the introductions.

"Good evening, Lord Caius and Lady Athenadora" said the man I assumed to be Tiberin, he was a tall and broad man that had long dark hair that passed his shoulders, he had the sides pulled back and tied into a plait at the back of his head, he looked elven and I guessed he must have been in his forties when he was changed as he had streaks of grey running in his hair and had distinct age lines around his eyes and forehead. "It is a pleasure to finally meet you" he continued in his heavily accented English "Though I am truly sorry for the circumstances"

"I doubt you are sorry" said Athenadora "And as such, I believe this evening will go a lot nicer if you put pretend pleasantries aside" As it is, Athenadora has learnt from being with Aro for so long. And then the lady sitting next to Tiberin laughed and trilling laugh, she must be Elisabeta, as no one else in the room laughed at Athenadora's statement.

"Well, it appears all the information we have been given on the Volturi Wives has proven to be false" she said, while giving Athenadora a appraising look "We were told that you and your sister wife, were cowards who quivered behind their husbands"

"I am three-thousand years old, I do not hide behind anyone, nor do I bend to the words of gypsy vermin" Athenadora retorted with venom, at the reply Elisabeta's eyes lit up with excitement

"Now, now ladies, if we can't get along we may as well as be cordial to each other" said Tiberin, and while that was said Arthur and I who were standing behind Caius and Athenadora noticed Caius squeeze her hand in thanks and pride.

"Tiberin, you planned an attack on our home Volterra, surely you knew that Aro would not let that pass" Caius said in a even and commanding tone

"What would you recommend?" Tiberin then asked

"That you accompany Athenadora, myself and my guard back to Volterra to be placed on trial"

"Ah" Tiberin said "I thought you might say that, which is why I brought my guard with me, you see I will not accompany you to Volterra, nor will I sit trial, in fact I was rather hoping we could come to a different arrangement"

"And what would that be?" Caius asked in turn

"Power"

"I'm sorry?" Caius said

"Power" Tiberin repeated "The Volturi have sat in power for far too long, I would ask here that you surrender your power over to us or Aro will find himself short three of his prized fighters and" he gestured at Arthur "whatever you are"

"I believe, Tiberin" Caius said carefully, he as well as I had noticed the slight shift in the room that suggested his men were ready to attack us at a moments notice, I also noticed Arthur move his hand from his side, he moved it slightly forward and had an open palm. "That I can not give you what you ask, and even if Aro and Marcus were here, I doubt they would give you what you ask as well"

"Pity. I could have saved you a lot of pain if you had just said yes" At this Elisabeta began to let a smile creep onto her face as she braced herself for the coming carnage, Tiberin also stood up and revealed that he was wearing robes and not modern human clothing "You see I have surrounded myself with powerful and gifted vampires, not unlike yourself, except I have more of a knack for it I'd say, take Godiva for example" he gestured at a Saxon looking woman with long dirty blonde hair "she has a necromancy ability and Conway here" he pointed at a burly looking man with black hair "he can manipulate water and Barak" he pointed at another, this one looked to be Hebrew "can produce lightning and last but not least we have Darnell" he pointed at the last vampire who looked to be painfully French "has the extraordinary gift of invisibility"

"Well then, I propose that before you dispose of us with your impressive guard, that you sit down and let us discuss our other options" Caius said evenly, though I could tell that he was beginning to get apprehensive

"Other options?" Tiberin inquired as he lowered himself back into his seat.

"Yes, other options, obviously the thrill of espionage has clouded your young mind" Athenadora snapped

"I will not be spoken to like that from a woman, and a hostage no less" Tiberin snapped, for all his talk and for all his comfort he lacked the proper fair for negotiation that was prized in the Volturi, crude, I thought to myself, he must be younger than I am.

"Young indeed" Caius murmured to Athenadora so only she, Arthur and I could hear "You are young" Caius spoke aloud "and so you have forgotten the traditional measure of power and seizure of control"

"And what would that be?" Tiberin spat, he was becoming sloppy, at least when Aro was upset he kept it to himself, Tiberin was starting to act like a spoiled child

"War" Caius said, his voice was full of delight and anticipation, his eyes were gleaming with sadistic pleasure

"I can agree to that" Tiberin sulked "shall we start now" I noticed Stefan and Vladimir flicker with delight and panic, this was what they wanted, and little did Tiberin and Elisabeta know that they were being used as puppets to take the blunt force of the Volturi while Stefan and Vladimir skulked off to finish us off slowly to regain control, I also noticed the dynamic duo roll their eyes, it was obvious that Tiberin had no experience in war.

"No" Caius spoke simply "We negotiate now, we decide on a place and time to fight"

"Fine. When would you like to fight and where would you like to fight"

"Six months to the day at this location" Caius said as he passed a piece of paper with co-ordinates on it

"Is that all?" Tiberin asked sharply, obviously his attitude has deteriorated beyond the point where he might consider re-establishing his decorum

"No, that's it" Caius said with finality "we will see you on the battlefield in six months"

"I will see your brothers in six months" said Tiberin, a sinister tone now making the way into his voice "but I will not see you, its time you and your pesky guard met death" Caius' head twitched and his eyes sharpened, I felt my body instinctively begin to coil, ready to pounce and I saw Arthur tense up, his eyes fixed upon Tiberin, his hand twitching and lastly Athenadora did not move a muscle she simply turned to Tiberin and smiled "BARAK NOW" Tiberin screamed.

Within a second the room began to crack with lightning as the vampire lightning rod began to focus his power, and then within the next second four bolts of lightning were progressing their way across the room but before any of us could move, Arthur got there first his hand now raised fully and then the lightning met unexpected resistance.

"Jane on the left" Arthur said and I looked as the invisible man became invisible as he started running toward the barrier, I heard a crack as lightning man doubled his efforts and then another as invisible man collided with Arthur's barrier, the sound gave him away and started assaulting the area where I heard him and then eventually the screams of pain came and soon the invisible man became very visible.

"You see Tiberin" Athenadora said "you can't just kill us with a click of your impertinent fingers" she stood up and made her way to the door

"And you do well not assume you are the 'bees knees' as it were" Caius said as he joined his wife at the door "Take care of this mess you two, but don't kill them" Caius told us in a undertone and then quite clearly he addressed the Romanians that were stuck so helplessly behind the barrier "We will see you in six months, no sooner no later. And note that the two vampires you are now at the mercy at are sixty-six percent of the force that eradicated that pathetic scouting party you sent to Italy" with that he and Athenadora left the room and went back to the Hotel, I heard the car pull away before I continued.

"Now, we will let you live so long as you abide by Caius' wishes, if not we will have to punish you" I said as clearly as I could

"We will never do as that bastard and his bitch say" Tiberin screamed at me, so I utilized my gift against him, he writhed in agony under my gaze, he nearly fell off his chair that's when I stopped

"How dare you raise your voice against me, you impertinent child" I scolded him

"That seems to be the pot calling the kettle black" The woman Elisabeta said, she was standing up now hovering over her partner not sure of what to do.

"I am nine hundred years old, I stopped being a child long ago" I told her flatly "Now, can you agree to our terms or does Arthur have to show you what happens to people who don't agree, he's very talented you know" Silence. Nothing, no response from the Romanians as they stood in disarray all around their half of the room "Be it on your head then. Arthur" I turned and he gave me a smirk and then with his other hand he began to gently tear the arm of the lightning man, his screams were terrible as well, and I thought I would have to get Arthur to do it to me just so I could experience the pain, because I can only inflict onto others what I have felt and what he was doing might just top burning on a pyre.

"Enough" Tiberin yelled, Arthur continued tearing the arm off

"What was that?" he asked sweetly

"Enough" Tiberin repeated

"I'm sorry, that isn't the answer" he replied, again he said it sweetly as if he were innocent

"We will do as you request" Tiberin said in submission

"Good" I said

"But to make sure you get the point" Arthur said and then without word or warning both of the lightning mans arms flew off from his shoulders with a resounding crack and a giant scream of pain, Tiberin looked at us with absolute, unmistakable contempt

"But when we win this battle, you two will be punished the most harshly" Tiberin spat at us

"Correction" I said "If, you win the battle" and with that Arthur and left the room.

Once we were out of the room we broke out into a run and collected the car on the drive back to the hotel he asked me

"Do you expect they will keep their word?"

"Absolutely not, we annoyed them something fierce"

"So what do we do next?"

"We pack our bags and wait for them to come"

"Why?"

"So we can entrap them, because once they attack us we will have reasonable grounds to retaliate, however we need to remember that even if we get Tiberin and the rest, Stefan and Vladimir will not be so foolish, they will return to Romania and gather their forces especially since they have what they came for"

"What did they come for?" Arthur asked me carefully

"A war, they wanted a fight, they got a fight, Tiberin and Elisabeta are just puppets"

"I thought so, Tiberin seemed like the type that could be easily fooled. How old do you think he was?"

"No more than eighty or ninety, he is young and he let it show." Arthur simply nodded as we made our way back to the hotel.

When we got back to the hotel we went straight to our room and got changed, the fight was coming to us and we were going to make sure we were wearing clothes that could handle the heat. I put on a navy blue Marc Jacobs dress with stockings and a pair of Marc Jacobs brogues completed with a dark grey coat and my Jimmy Choo bag. Arthur was wearing tailored slim fit black pants with a white t-shirt that had a low neck line as well as with a one button blazer and his black Burberry coat. We then packed our bags and brought them to the car

"So here's the plan" I began as we ran as swiftly as we could to the cars and in a philosophical sense we were running toward our fate, and I couldn't help but feel exhilarated, exonerated and exalted.


	23. Hunting For Witches

Nothing Ever Stays the Same

Chapter 23- Hunting For Witches

The hunt was one, and I was excited. The air seemed to linger with the smell of bloody beginnings and I longed for more, the very thought titillated me beyond my wildest imaginings because I am not a creature created or born, I am a creature that is learned. I have learned to be bloodthirsty, I have learned to crave for the blood lust that seemed to have me on the very edge of my sanity, but I have also learned that the reward is greater when I am patient and I wait, wait until I can maximise the gains, wait until I can reap all of that which I have sowed. One of the dead men could manipulate water and so we were now driving along the foreshore of the lake that Lucerne was situated, we were baiting them, counting on their haughtiness to lure them out; as I swerved in and out of the traffic along the highway I could see the water line begin to receded drastically as a massive wall of water began to form.

"They are liable to get us discovered" Caius huffed from the back seat "Arthur, be sure to let that wave crash behind us, we don't want people to think a massive wave formed and then just disappeared"

"Okay" was Arthur's response, it was through gritted teeth, for certain he was not looking forward to doing it and I could understand, after all Caius, Athenadora, and I have all been vampires for centuries, we had little, if any humanity. But Arthur wasn't even a year old, he was more human than not. I put my hand on his leg and gave him a reassuring squeeze, I wasn't necessarily comfortable with it but it was just what someone should do.

As the wave began to break Arthur took control making it slowly collapse as we drove on ahead of it, collapsing the wave behind us was killing him, but he understood and he put his humanity aside for duty.

"When we find these" he screwed his face up and clenched his hands, reeling himself in "vampires" he managed to finally got out, and then looked at me "when we find them, I need you to promise me Jane, promise me that you will let me kill Conway and wring him for all that he is worth."

I was taken a back with the amount of hatred that came out of his mouth "Of course I will, do what you wish"

"Good, now the turn is coming up" I turned back to the road and got ready to take the turn, the turn that would not only take us out of Lucerne, but to the battlefield, it appeared the war had started early and that the first casualties were about to be recorded.

"Stay in the car" Arthur said to Athenadora and Caius in a stern and commanding voice "Its better if the leaders stay out of this blatant breach of contract"

Neither of our two leaders seemed to want to get in a argument with Arthur at the moment so they both simply nodded

"Don't take too long then" Caius whined and Arthur grinned a wicked grin

"If we don't kill them in two seconds I'll be disappointed, so don't worry about how long we'll take"

He turned to face me and offered his arm, I took it and we walked forward to confront the enemy, arm in arm, stoic and still as statues. When the enemy came, they emerged from the tree line in one line, they were all wearing identical smirks as they sauntered over to us.

"Enjoy the show?" Tiberin asked

"You do realise that the contract has not even been settled for 4 hours and you have already breached it?" I replied coolly, I was not in the mood for games and shenanigans

"And that the penalty for breaching the contract is death?" Arthur also asked

"Yes, and yes" Tiberin answered both with a calm voice "but see, there are eight mature vampires against two very much immature vampires"

"The only immature vampires I see here are you" Arthur said "because only immature vampires risk exposing our world by killing as many humans as you did" At this statement a sneer flashed across Tiberin's face

"How dare you speak to me like that I did what I had to do" Tiberin spat

"No" Arthur retorted flatly, the rage Tiberin was feeling was contorting his face in the most hideous way possible "You did what you wanted to do, that's why you are immature, you are capricious, and selfish and above all you lack the empathy needed to be a leader"

"How dare you spe…" Tiberin was about to rant before Arthur cut him off, Arthur who was talking in such a level voice he was at risk of becoming Aro

"No, how dare you call yourself a king when all you seem to be able to do is act like an impetuous child"

"You have crossed the line" Elisabeta screeched "you insufferable little shit, it is time for you to die" It was at this point I decided to intervene by inflicting myself upon Elisabeta, and just as level as Arthur spoke, I spoke

"People who so are delicate and weak like you, should not decide whether someone lives or dies" It was then that the battle started, and just as Barak, Conway and Darnell made their break for Arthur, I made the break for Elisabeta reaching her before she had a chance to recover from her pain I took her head in my hands, flipped over her and then flipped her over me so she was on the ground, head in my hands and I pulled taking her head with me. Before the others had a chance to react I threw her head at Tiberin who caught it, and in the brief second that he realised what he caught I ran over to him and grabbed his arm, I noticed Godiva about to make a swing at me so I shifted Tiberin around and used him as a body shield. In short, the body shield idea worked as Godiva's fist ploughed through Tiberin's chest, she took it out as soon as she realised what she'd done and before she could make another move Vladimir and Stefan had grabbed her and run off.

I cocked my head at the scene but then quickly remembered I had a dazed Tiberin in my arms, I dropped him on his back and straddled him, lowering myself down to his face I whispered into his ear.

"A word of advice" I began "When the most powerful group of vampires in the world tell you to run, run" and then the torture began, and I stared into his eyes as I made him feel the worst pain that I could imagine, and then, whilst still inflicting upon him, I began to rip him apart, piece by piece I took him apart until the screaming stopped. I raised my head and looked at Arthur, and by the burning carcass of Darnell I assumed he went for the human shield approach as well, and at the present he was swinging Barak by the head and throwing him into Conway and the second that Conway was on his back Barak disappeared into oblivion and then Arthur pounced on Conway, but Conway saw it coming and threw Arthur off of him. It was a Mexican stand-off, both Arthur and Conway stood looking at each other, daring the other to attack. Not wanting to miss it I finished off Tiberin quickly, in a poetic way I gave him a death he probably felt he didn't deserve, quick, quiet and with no big sweeping movements with words filled with promise and grandness. I set fire to the remains of all the victims thus far, and when I turned back to look I saw that Darnell and Arthur were still circling each other.

"Darnell" I heard Caius say "You have fought valiantly, and it would be a shame to let you die with gifts as wonderful as yours" Arthur let out a involuntary hiss, and it was then I noticed the hilarity of the situation, because in front of me was a vampire with the slender body of a 16 year old facing up against a vampire with a large bulky build and the body of a 30 year old.

"What do you offer Caius?" Darnell asked, tone of interest was noticeable in his voice.

"Life" Caius said simply "Of course, on the condition that you join us. Join the Volturi." Something flashed across Darnell's face I couldn't quite tell what it was it looked like he was tempted. But his face soon flashed back to stony resolve, by this time Caius was standing next to Arthur, and Arthur was still fixated on Darnell, his slender body coiled, ready to attack at a seconds notice.

"Well, I would never work for such a malicious, seditious, and megalomanic organization such as the Volturi" Darnell said with absolute conviction

"Then I am afraid you must join your comrades" Caius said, but as he was saying the words Arthur was sprinting lightning fast across the field at Darnell. Darnell noticed and next thing I knew a giant orb of water had formed swallowing Arthur and Darnell into it. I didn't think, I just ran at it, but before I got close enough a whip of water lashed me in the chest and sent me flying back. Landing on my feet, I looked at the orb, a feeling of unease settling over me and before I could do anything else I felt Athenadora put her hands on my shoulders pull me into her, I understood it was for comfort and restraint. Caius had gone to the edge of the forest picked at tree out of the ground and with all the might he could muster he launched it at the orb and once again a whip of water lashed it back, it lashed it back at Caius with a deadly precision, Caius did a little jump and brought his foot down on the tree crushing beneath his force. He then picked up some smaller splinter sized pieces and he began to run around the orb throwing the splinters at random intervals, all the splinters hit the orb and then got caught up in the motion of the water and being spat out again. Caius stopped when he got to Athenadora and I.

"Looks as if we will just have to wait" he said, and the dread came back, and I felt as if the heart I had only just rediscovered was going to come out of my mouth.

A few, very tense, very long minutes later something happened. The orb of water exploded and then got focused it a sort of twister which then started to boil, steam and evaporate. Arthur was standing there, his face was cracked, hair dishevelled, clothing out of place and in some places ripped, in his hand, hanging at the side of his leg was Darnell's head, it looked to be something out of a horror movie because the expression on Darnell's face was like he had seen a ghost, his eyes were white and his mouth was agape.

"I think I may need to do some more training" Arthur managed to say, he himself looked fairly stunned after his ordeal.

"Let's just go home" was all I could manage to say.

The drive back to Volterra was thankfully uneventful, Caius offered to drive, which in a way was a good and a bad thing. Good in that we got home very quickly, bad in that I felt as if I was challenging my immortality. When we got back to the Castle, the dick on the garage asked us for our I.D's again, I'd quite had enough of him at this point so I got out of the car and grabbed him by the scruff of the neck, lowered him down to my face and gave him an almighty head butt.

"Must you try our patience every time we come here?" I asked him as I pinched the bridge of my nose with my thumb and forefinger. "I mean honestly, you think you had enough sense to recognize one of the leaders of the Volturi, and not because we are driving one of the leaders cars, or that he is wearing one of the leaders necklaces. But just for the honest to gods fact that you have seen him before"

"He might have been a shape shifter" he moaned, I rolled my eyes and kicked him in the ribs.

"There is only one shape-shifting vampire in the world and I killed him fifty years ago, and more than that, do you really think one shape-shifter could overpower four of the most powerful vampires in the world?" I just about screamed at him, but I refrained because I knew how shrill and uncommanding my voice became. "Apollo help me" I said to the sky before I reached into his pocket and opened the garage door and jumped back in the car and let Caius drive in. Arthur gave me a funny look, like he was bursting to laugh.

"What?" I snapped at him

"Nothing" he said, his voice still laced with the fact he wanted to burst out laughing, and then I noticed he wasn't the only one. Athenadora had her head forward and her hand covering her mouth and shoulders heaving ever so slightly, and Caius had a wicked grin on his face. \

"He gets on my nerves, it was going to happen eventually"

"Sure" Arthur said as he fought harder and harder to regain control of his laughter

"Oh, for fucks sake just let it out" I screamed, and I immediately regretted it because Arthur began to laugh out loud, and Athenadora let her sniggering more apparent "So immature" I muttered, and all that I got in response was a particularly patronizing pat on the leg from Arthur.

Aro was, as he always seemed to be, glad to see us. I think he was just excited to hear the results of our mission, and by hear I mean 'listen in' on what happened. He didn't seem overly surprised at the results.

"Always trouble our dear Romanians are" he said wistfully "However they seemed to have struck some luck in the fight against us"

"We have six months to plan" Caius informed Aro

"Six months is nothing" Aro replied "especially when they are planning as well"

"Should we be concerned?" Marcus asked

"Not concerned no" Aro said "But we should take this seriously, their schemes have become more elaborate and they have been working for centuries to over throw us, and their hatred has not waned"

"What do we do?" Caius asked in a soft and serious voice

"We?" Aro asked back in a amused voice "We do nothing"

"What?" Caius spat

"It is time for us to work to finding peace in the vampire world" Aro began "If we want the trust and respect of our fellows, then we must involve them, if we are sending them to their deaths, I will not allow to happen blindly, they must know everything."

"A wise decision, Aro" Marcus agreed "Arthur and Jane"

"Yes?" I said

"Will you please go and get one representative from each family to come and see us as soon as possible"

"Yes, sir" I said and both Arthur and I left to find them.

When we got to the main hallway I turned to Arthur.

"If you get the representative for the Cullen's, the Denali's, and just because your you, you can fetch the Irish as well"

"That's blatant Tokenism, using me for my background, its prejudice and blatant Tokenism" Arthur told me.

"Do not be a 'smart-ass' Arthur and just get them" I snapped

"Fine" he said in a exasperated tone as he turned around, his hands flying above his head. I didn't take me long to find everyone and to send them on their way, though admittedly they did all look a little suspicious when I told them to go see Aro. But now that was behind me I was heading back to my room, and hopefully find Alec in the process, I hadn't seen him in a week, and I was feeling a nagging in my stomach about having not been near my twin for that long. I found him in our common room, playing chess with Jasper while Alice looked almost bored, I suppose she'd already seen the outcome and was just waiting for it to come to fruition. When I walked through the door though she looked at me excitedly.

"Its about time" she just about screamed as she jumped up "You've been home for ages"

"I'm sorry" I said to her, I wasn't sorry, and I didn't understand why she was upset, but it was just a natural reaction "I got held up with Aro" The second I said it her eyes went blank and she gazed dreamily into nothing.

"Oh, that" she said when she snapped out of it "That will be interesting"

"What is it Alice?" Jasper asked her

"Something big, but we'll find out soon" She responded.

Alec was now next to me and giving me a hug, a hug that I reciprocated "I'm happy you are home" is what he said

"I'm happy to be home, my trip was interesting to say the least"

"Did you get to do anything other than talk?" He asked eagerly

"I did, I went to some social events with everyone and then I got to do some killing, well, a lot of killing actually"

"I'm really jealous, I've just been cooped up in the castle, doing nothing."

"Don't worry, the big battle is in six months so things are finally going to pick up I'd say"

"Six months?" Alec inquired, a smile breaking onto his face

"Yes, six, very short months" Before I could say more Arthur came in the door "What took you so long?" I taunted

"Those Irish vampires are absolute gas" he said, and his accent and for some reason seemed thicker "And I had a very good conversation with Siobhan as I showed her up to Aro's study, fascinating woman"

"You aren't leaving me for one of Sancar's harems are you?" I asked him dryly

"Nope, I am quite happy with my lot thank-you"

"This is lovely banter you two have going on" Alice declared "But we are going to be summoned to the throne room in 10 minutes so you might want to get changed" I acknowledged her and Arthur gave me a sneaky kiss on the cheek before he ran to his room.

I opted for colour when I picked out my outfit for the meeting. It was a light green dress by Diane von Furstenberg, with a pair of cute Louboutin's I bought a while ago. I let my hair down and I left to get ready for the call. Arthur was also dressed quite colourfully, he was wearing a polo shirt that had embroidery on the shoulders that made it look as if he had armour on them, he was also wearing a pair of sandy coloured skinny pants with a pair of dressy-looking black leather shoes. He was standing in front of the mirror running his fingers through his hair.

"I think I need a haircut" he was saying "Alice, could you cut it for me? You seem like the artsy type"

"I thought you'd never ask" she said, obviously delighted with herself, then she noticed me "Oh, that dress looks gorgeous on you" she exclaimed "and those shoes are wonderful, can I try them when you're finished?"

"Of course you can Alice" I said. It was actually very nice having Alice and Jasper around, they were good company to keep, especially Alice, she was a bit full on at times but she really lifted the mood of the room. And then ten minuted had passed and as if it were clockwork we got a knock on the door and Chelsea appeared.

"There is a meeting downstairs, everyone is to attend" she said

"Thank-you Chelsea, we'll be down momentarily" said Alec, Chelsea smiled and then disappeared. Alice was looking smug as we all got up to leave.

The throne room was crowded, full of everyone eagerly awaiting the news that Aro had for us all. On the dais was not only Aro, Caius, Marcus and the wives, but the heads of the families he had just had a meeting with. The news was sure to big, and the tension and suspense in the room was palpable.

"The protection of the vampire world has become to difficult for the Volturi to manage" were Aro's opening words "as such, we now must spread our arms and open ourselves up for change, I have had a meeting with some of the most important vampires in the world and we have come up with a solution to our problems" by now everyone in the room was on edge, I myself was insanely curious as to the meaning of Aro's words "The Volturi, in a sense, must disband, and in its separation expansion must arise. We must become mediators not the law, we must divide, but not to conquer, but in order to become efficient and free from internal pressures"

"Even now as we face the threat of destruction by the Romanians, we must to afterwards, a more permanent future that will not be fraught with such violence and aggression towards ourselves. This idea has been approved of by the people you see standing next to me, and we will follow it through until the future of the vampires is once again secure" When Aro had finished the crowd had been shocked into silence, and I wasn't surprised, Aro was telling everyone that the Volturi had become outdated and that we needed to update how the vampire world was policed.

"You are all dismissed" said Marcus, his voice cutting through the silence. Everyone began to move, but it was in a strange robotic way as their minds were full. I looked at Marcus and he was making his way down to Arthur, Alec and I. "Meet Aro, and I in the garden" he said to us in a low voice as he continued on his way, I looked toward the dais and I saw that Aro had gone already. Then I looked at Arthur and Alec and they were looking at me

"Shall we?" I offered and they both nodded and we all made our way to Didyme's garden, because by garden we all seemed to know that, that is what Marcus meant, it was private and secluded and above all secret.

When we got there, it didn't look as bright as it normally did, the cloudy Tuscan sky impairing the garden in some way, Aro and Marcus were sitting on a bench at the top of the garden.

"Good evening" Aro said when we finally reached him "I suppose you are wondering why I asked you here" We all nodded "well then I won't keep you in the dark much longer. As I said downstairs, the Volturi, as a guard, as a leadership, as we know it is disbanding." He stood up and moved to look over at the horizon "We will become more like the mortal United Nations, we will now allow for trusted allies to police their own territories, territories that we will discuss and debate later" he was pacing now, he stopped briefly to look at the statue of Didyme before carrying on pacing "We will keep agents everywhere, they will act as world police, only interfering where it is necessary, however I am also dividing the Volturi up into three divisions" he turned to look at Alec, Arthur and myself "Espionage" he said pointing at Alec "Research" now pointing at Arthur "and finally Defence" he said pointing at me.

"The point of this, is to spread the Volturi's wealth of experience and knowledge over the world to protect and to forward the Vampire world. We have been stuck in the middle ages and it is time to progress" Marcus was now speaking "and you three best represent those aspects which the Volturi embodies, you are also the three most senior members of the guard, you are the most powerful, and command the most respect."

"Any questions?" Aro asked

"When will this change become official?" Alec asked

"After the war we will begin discussions with the vampires covens of the world and begin to work out the system, at the same time you three will be splintering off, and with our funding begin your work" Aro explained

"What is the work we will be doing?" Arthur asked

"It depends" Marcus began "you, Arthur, will be conducting research on vampires, much like you did in psychology to discover why humans behave the way they do, you will investigate why vampires behave they do, as well as guiding research in other areas such as our anatomy and biology. Alec will be doing espionage, going behind the scenes to pre-emptively take out vampires will be causing trouble, much like the mortal CIA, MI6, the Gestapo or KGB, and Jane will be the more offensive face, like commander of the vampire military, the more public face." we all nodded, a vague understanding of what we were undertake coming over us.

"Why are you relinquishing so much of the control you have worked at getting?" that was the question I asked Aro, his eyes gleamed maliciously, I had asked the right question, I had stumbled across the reason he was doing this.

"Because Jane" he began to explain "by relinquishing some of the control, I am gaining much more in the way of power and influence, I will be closer to everyone, have access to everyone."

His plan scared me, I respected him, I revered him, but I knew deep down that Aro should never have power, and now he was getting it, getting the world on a platter, all he had to do was sit back and let everyone argue. "If that's everything I must depart, I have a feeling that I will have to angry members of the guard" and with that Aro left, he left us on what felt like a malicious climax. Alec and Arthur also looked stunned, and Marcus just looked like Marcus, like what Aro had said hadn't bothered him, Alec was the first to move.

"I have to finish the roster for the guard for next month"

"Don't you normally do the roster for the year?" I asked him

"Yes, but I have a feeling that I should only take things a month at a time, Aro will have some rigorous something or other that will take a lot of man power and hours" Alec further explained "So I better get to it, its proving to be a task" Once Alec was gone Marcus turned to Arthur and I.

"I have another mission for you" Arthur and I looked at him a bit incredulously, after all we had just gotten back from a mission "For the new year of course, and it will be a nice relaxing one, and has several parts to it" Arthur and I then, simultaneously released a sigh of relief, and Marcus chuckled to himself looking genuinely happy at our display.

"What is it?" I asked him

"Well firstly" he began "We have just purchased an old manor house that will act as base of operations for you both, you are to go and oversee the restoration of the house, as well as outfitting the house with furniture and fittings that you would like"

"Where is it?" Arthur asked

"It is in a country with the smallest vampire population of the world, yet it is easily defensible, and offers access to Europe, which has the largest population, and the Americas, the second largest. It is in a place one of you knows very well, Ireland" I had half expected a large smile to break out onto Arthur's face, instead he looked troubled and worried.

"I don't think that, that is a good idea" Arthur pleaded "I love the place, I really do, but I know too many people there and at the end of the day it is quite small"

"We have assessed that risk, and we have bought somewhere in the country as opposed to the city" Marcus was assuring Arthur now, I myself had no issue with it, I thought that Ireland was extremely nice

"Where exactly then?" asked Arthur, a little too firm considering who he was talking to, but then again this was as serious as I had ever seen him outside a battle or when he was overcome with vampiric urge.

"County Wicklow" Marcus announced, and I saw Arthur relax

"That, I can live with" I looked at him with curiosity "My family, and just about everyone I know are located in Counties Dublin, Meath and Louth" he explained

"Good, good" Marcus said to move the conversation along "The second part of the mission is to go to London, there is another house there, a Georgian this time, and you will do a similar thing, you will also have a meeting with the Queen, as well as hunt for the vampire known as Joham"

"Joham?" I repeated "The South American experimenter?"

"The very same, bring him here so Aro can get his knowledge, but if you kill him it won't be upsetting and I'm sure Arthur will fill the knowledge gap and more" Marcus finished, he stood up and began to walk toward the exit. "Also, feel free to start your recruiting for divisions now, you are free to approach anyone who can help you." Next thing I knew he was gone and Arthur and I were left in the garden alone, stunned and bewildered, it had been a busy week, and it wasn't about to slow down either.

* * *

A/N: I am so, so, so very sorry for taking so long to update. I promise it won't be as long for the next chapter, especially since I've finally worked out where I'm going with this story. Also a review or two would be nice. I like it when you people talk to me.


	24. Chop and Change Part 1

Nothing Ever Stays the Same

Chapter 24- Chop and Change Part 1

Arthur and I slowly made our way back to our common room, partly because our heads were still spinning, and partly because we were making sure that no one was acting out. The Volturi were disbanding I kept thinking to myself, the nine-hundred years of my existence spent invested in the Volturi were coming to an end, I felt almost in a way empty, except that I knew it wasn't really the end, it was just a major reconstruction, moving office, moving house. It was almost in a sense too much for me to think about.

"Are you okay?" Arthur eventually asked me

"I think so, its just a lot to get my head around right now" I told him

"I understand, and don't feel obliged to talk to me about it, there are people here that understand what you are feeling better than I do"

"Thank-you" I replied "But I will talk to you, because I want to, and because you want to understand it better" he smiled at me and took my hand, it felt reassuring, and I felt a bit happier already.

Alec wasn't in the common room when we got there, but Alice was, and she was almost bouncing on her seat, I knew now, thanks to experience, that she had something she really wanted to say and that she was just waiting for permission.

"Just say it, Alice" I told her

"You have to let us come with you" is what she busted out with.

"Excuse me?" I asked sternly

"Ireland, the manor house, you HAVE to let us help" She furthered, excitement still at the same level it was before

"Who is 'us'?" Arthur asked carefully

"Esme, Jasper and myself"

"Why?" I asked

"Because its what we do, restore houses, Esme is the best though" She said, finally the excitement in her voice was toning down

"You don't have to, but we would appreciate if you let us help you" Jasper then explained. Something the clicked inside my head, something that Marcus had said finally made sense, Arthur too had made the connection, though I think he made it before me because he was already lost in thought.

"Alice" I said sweetly

"Of course Jane, I can do that for you and Arthur" Alice said over me, obviously she saw what I was about to ask. "Come along Jasper, we have to do something for Jane" Alice said as she started to skip out the room "Where will we meet you?"

"There is some private lounge areas downstairs, we will meet you in one of those" I told her, and then she skipped off merrily.

"What just happened?" Arthur asked when he snapped out of his thoughts

"We are getting a meeting with the Cullen's, I hope you know what you want" I said slyly.

"I do" Arthur replied as he caught onto my train of thought.

Arthur and I had been sitting down for a few minutes when the Cullen family walked in the door, they all looked confused, except for Alice, Jasper and Carlisle.

"Jane, Arthur" Carlisle said as he walked in the door. "May I congratulate you on your new posts" now the Cullen's looked more confused.

"Thank-you" I said as I stood up and shook his hand "Have a seat everyone, Arthur and I have a few things we would like to discuss with you" Now I noticed Edward trying to listen in desperately, but Arthur and I didn't want to give anything away to the nosy fear monger (I did think that, and I took great pleasure in the face he made). When they had sat down I began.

"Firstly" I started "Arthur, Alec and I have all been charged with heading different aspects of the new Volturi. I am in charge of Defence, and Arthur here is in charge of Science and research" They all nodded with understanding "Since Arthur and I are, for want of a better word, mated. We have been given shared premises for both our departments, so I have come to ask, firstly, I Esme would come with us to the premises so she can restore it, Alice has told us she is very good at that" Esme looked quite taken aback with the offer.

"What is it? The place that you would like me to restore" She asked timidly

"Its two places" Arthur cut in "A manor house and gardens in Ireland, and a Georgian town house in London" If I wasn't looking at her I would have missed the flash of excitement in her eyes.

"Alice and Jasper have also offered to come as well so you wouldn't be alone" I was quick to add this, the Cullen's were looking a bit edgy that there Matriarch would be alone with me and my mate.

"If everyone is comfortable with it, I would love go and help you" Esme said

"Good" Arthur then said "that ties in neatly with our next proposition" the focus was now on Arthur "since Jane and I have been given these roles, we have been told we are free to recruit anyone to help us, Volturi or not, and given your vast experience and the respect the name Cullen espouses we would like to invite you to be employed by us." Arthur finished.

"You and Jane have given our family a lot to think about" Carlisle said

"I know, and Jane and I will leave you now and let you think this over" Arthur said gently "just let us know when you have decided, we don't leave for Ireland for another two weeks so you have time."

"Thank-you" Carlisle said simply and both Arthur and I nodded and we got up and left.

"Do you think they'll accept" he asked me

"Who knows, the Cullen's aren't exactly known for being predictable" I told him.

A few days later I was walking around the city as part of my patrol, wearing something casual I was able to duck in and out of mortal shops, browsing at things and making sure everything was okay. The Cullen's still hadn't made a decision yet, whenever I saw Alice she would just shake her head at me to tell me they hadn't made their minds up. It was just about twilight in the city of Volterra and the night shift was about to take over so I made my way back to the castle, walking casually around the side streets of the city, I always thought it was a beautiful city and today wasn't going to change my mind, despite that it was the middle. It was New Years Day and the Italians were all inside their houses having large and boisterous gatherings to celebrate the new year, the clean slate, it was raining today and hefted the collar of my collar up to protect myself from the rain. I turned around a corner, and I found Carlisle Cullen standing there by himself, he was wearing a long coat and was looking at me.

"Alice said that I would find you if I waited here" he told me

"Well come along, I am still technically on patrol so I hope you can walk and talk" I said and he smiled and started walking next to me.

"I was just wondering why you asked us to join you and Arthur?" he said

"Aro was planning you and your family anyway, and I figured you had no intention to become responsible for the American vampires so Arthur and I wanted to get in first with a offer that would suit you and your family" I explained

"How does it suit me and my family?"

"Arthur and I have a plan, and we can use you and everyone in your family, and this way you can work for the Volturi and not be used by Aro, and you won't have to be separated"

"So you had our benefit in my mind?" he asked

"Truthfully?" I asked back, he nodded "No, we didn't, but we thought about it and Arthur wanted to work with you, and I wanted to have Jasper, and when we thought about it more we can find use for everyone in your family in our departments"

"Why does Arthur want to work with me?"

"Arthur told me that he is a psychology man, that he could learn anatomy and biology very easily but he would rather ask someone who has a much firmer grasp and a more natural intuition"

"Thank-you for being honest Jane" Carlisle said

"I'm only being honest, because there is no longer a point to lying" I told him

"We'll do it" Carlisle announced "I always figured Aro was going to use us, but at least it will be in a way that we decide"

"Good" I said "I can protect you now, and that's all the protection you need from him"

"How so?" Carlisle asked with curiosity

"Aro, only looks at what he needs to look at where I am concerned, its how he shows he trusts me and I have the protection of Caius and Marcus, as well as the wives, in short, it would cost Aro a lot to not trust me" Carlisle looked at me with admiration

"I'm impressed Jane" he said

"Carlisle, I'm nine hundred years old, and a very good liar, I would die for Aro but I am not willing to let good people like yourself be entrapped by him because I do know what he is like" Carlisle just nodded and we finished the rest of my patrol in silence, when we got back to the castle Carlisle turned to me

"When are you leaving for Ireland?" he asked

"In a week now" I said

"How is Arthur?" he asked me, I looked at him and I saw that he was genuinely concerned, something that I wasn't terribly used to seeing

"He's worried, and paranoid that he is going to bump into someone that he knows" I told him "his disappearance was one shrouded in mystery, only worsened by the fact that Arthur then took all his money with him"

"He really did that?" Carlisle exclaimed

"He had amassed a fair amount of fortune from all his work, not mention the fact he had just been gifted with one and half million Euro worth of research grant"

"What is he doing with the research grant?"

"He decided a few months ago to invest it in pharmaceuticals and then in a year to withdraw it and then decide whether or not to keep it or donate it around, I think, now that he is doing research again he will keep it"

"Keep it?" Carlisle asked, he was genuinely interested

"You do know that we are going to pay you and everyone that works for us? This isn't going to be a cheap venture for the Volturi to undergo"

"I think I am only just understanding this now, how do you plan on making money?"

"By seeling Arthur's research, and also Arthur has decided to meddle in mortal affairs and start pilot research, as well as using his keen scientific mind to develop cures for the incurable for the humans and their condition and then sell it off to them. Alec is going to start a mercenary trade for humans as well, corporate espionage and assassination, and I am going to use my keen business sense to invest money anywhere and everywhere"

"So basically what you are saying" Carlisle began "is that you, your brother and your mate and going to take over the world by playing your hand in every sector"

"Well yes" I said honestly "Its one of the ways we can guarantee secrecy" Carlisle nodded with understanding, I can tell he was worried, he moral and ethical sense getting in the way of his common sense.

After my talk with Carlisle the next week passed without consequence, life with the Volturi passed as normal, the castle was just a little busier, and it was slowly becoming busier again, Aro had decided to round up all the allies he was mustering into Volterra, to protect them and to make sure they didn't defect. This proved a very difficult living situation to sustain, Heidi was being worked out of her wits, and I was fairly sure Chelsea was about to combust, safe to say, the Volturi were going to be better off when we split up and Heidi joined Alec and Chelsea stayed with Aro. Alec, Arthur and I, when not recruiting people and planning our new organizations were flat out overseeing and teaching everyone how to fight up to Volturi standards, this also involved bringing some members of the Volturi up to the standard, one of those being Renata.

"_Come on Renata" I yelled at the shivering mess across the hall from me, Aro had ordered us to test the limits of Renata's ability in a way that we hadn't before. Right now there were twenty of us attacking Renata, Arthur had stood in as 'Aro' and if we got past her shields he was to just send back, she was a nervous wreck and it was bad enough we were doing this._

"_I'm ready" she stuttered out and placed her arm on Arthur's shoulder, and then I gave the signal and the twenty of us unleashed an assault on Renata, this time we were going to assault for 20 minutes continuously to see if she could withstand it. As we battered and hammered at her shield we made no progress, everyone was drifting, regaining their wits, and then attacking again; it was beginning to frustrate the people I had assigned to help, their attacks were becoming sloppy. Eventually after 15 minutes the first person snapped, they picked up a piece of the granite floor and then with all their might they threw it at the ground, I had to move aside to avoid being hit by the resulting shrapnel, the room went silent and then I looked over to Arthur and Renata, Arthur had moved and was holding between his fingers a piece of shrapnel that was about an inch away from Renata's temple._

"_I think we found the weakness" Arthur said, then he moved his body to face the vampire who had lost his cool, shrapnel still in hand he said in a deadly calm voice "Do you have any idea how unbelievably stupid that was?" The vampire in question was the most tense in the room, his face slowly dropped and he looked scared out of his wits_

"_But…I…I helped" the vampire stuttered _

"_No" Arthur said in a cold tone "You let your anger get the better of you, and as a result you risked the health and safety of everyone in this room, the only thing you did was prove just how incredibly stupid you are" the vampire now looked stone, cold, scared especially since he had seen Arthur in action a few days ago. "Its time for you to go, think about you did, and stay out of my way until such a time as I decide I don't want to kill you" And with the last word the vampire high-tailed it out of the room._

"_Practice is over, you can go back to doing what you were doing, and will someone clean up this mess" I called out._

Aro hadn't been overly pleased to discover of Renata's limitation, but I assured him that such a thing couldn't be helped and that he just needed to watch out for flying objects, he hadn't been happy with me saying that but Arthur then assured him that he needed some perspective, and that he should take a few days break from the confusion and logistical nightmare that the Volturi had become. Then Arthur and I had to go back to our common room and finish packing and planning for our trip and mission.

"You know" he said to me as he sat on my bed while I packed

"No, I don't know" I retorted, he made a very immature 'ha-ha' and then went back to staring at the ceiling

"This is a good time to be on a mission" he finished "I mean, redecorating two houses isn't going to nice or fun, but at least we aren't going to around this train-wreck" I smiled at him, but before I could say anything we had a knock on my door and then Alice's voice came through the thick wood

"The Irish are here to see you two" she told us, Arthur and I looked at each other quite puzzled before Arthur shrugged and got up

"We'll be there in a minute" he told her and then I heard her dancing footsteps fall away down the hall again. "Wonder what this is about" he said and then we went out to see them. As it turns out, the acquisition of the Cullen's into our organizations had inspired the Irish coven to join us, after a bit of discussion we decided who they were going to work for, it was split, there was an argument over who would get Maggie, then Arthur sealed the argument saying he would take Edward Cullen and that I could take Maggie. Siobhan would work for Arthur because of her history and technical craftsmanship he said that she would serve greater purpose helping Arthur design things, that left me with Liam because he was more inclined to the military.

The very next day Arthur and I were carrying our bags down to the garage with Alice, Jasper and Esme, and for a strange reason the Cullen's were all coming down to garage with us. Little Renesmee was the of a four year old and she was running around at our feet trying to make conversation with everyone. I soon noticed the Cullen's making a slight wall between Arthur and I and Alice, Jasper and Esme.

"Oh my god" Arthur whispered to me "If we were going to kill them, its not as if we would do it in the garage" I looked at him and he looked genuinely taken aback by the behaviour "there is nothing romantic about murder in a garage, I don't care how clean it is" I laughed at him, and I heard Alice, Emmet and Jasper laugh at it as well, Carlisle looked a bit stressed by the idea and Bella, Edward and Rosalie looked quite angry, Esme looked somewhat amused, but there was more concern in her eyes for the way three of her children had reacted. Instead of taking our Jaguars to the airport we decided to take two of the Porsche Panamera's, I turned to Santiago

"Tell Felix and Demetri know that they can take our Jaguar's, and that if they touch my Porsche or Arthur's Maserati that we will flay them"

"Yes miss" was his honest reply.

While the Cullen's said goodbye Arthur and I opened a map of the bonnet of one of the cars and planned a route to the Airport, and once we had it sorted we folded the map and got the cars ready.

"Jasper your with me" Arthur said "Alice and Esme can go with Jane" The Cullen's all nodded obviously happy with the plan. "Jane is going to first, and we will be behind, and certain points during the trip we will switch around, use our slipstreams to save some fuel"

"That's a lot of effort to save fuel" Emmet said

"Saving fuel is the official excuse, really its just for a bit of fun" Arthur admitted and Emmet let out a throaty chuckle. And then we were leaving, for a at least three months of renovation and boredom, however before we left the garage I rolled down my window at the door guard, he jumped when he saw me and I smiled at him sweetly.

"If you ask me for identification when I get back I will disembowel you" and before he could gather his wits I sped out of the garage, up the driveway and then out of Volterra with Arthur in my slipstream.

The morning light broke across Volterra as we traversed the highway toward Florence. It was a familiar drive, but the road was empty so Arthur and I let loose on the on the gas and sped down the highway as only immortals in Porsche's could. We managed to arrive at Florence in the hour and then we respectfully drove to the Jet hanger where our pilot was waiting for us, it was still too early to leave so we packed the plan and then waited around the hanger doing nothing in particular until nine o'clock which was our departure time. In the end we sat down and watched Jasper and Arthur play chess, well Jasper played chess and Arthur moved his pieces around the board while he sat at the computer finding out where the hotel is and where the manor is, he was doing this because as the one with the extensive knowledge on modern day Ireland he was designated driver. Suffice to say Jasper one the game because of Arthur's inattention, Arthur's reaction was to have a rematch on the plane, to which Jasper agreed. Then at eight thirty we boarded the plane and at nine we were in the air and on our way Ireland. Jasper and Arthur went straight into their game of chess and Esme, Alice and I started a conversation on fashion of all topics. Four hours later we landed in Ireland and it was raining, I wasn't too surprised, and I had dressed for the occasion by wearing jeans, a t-shirt, a rain coat and closed shoes. Then we went to the car rental place with our bags and we got our car which was a Volvo XC60. We loaded up and we headed out, it was only then I thought to ask Arthur where we were staying

"In Bray, it's a costal town right next to Wicklow, it will be a small drive everyday between there and the manor, there is also plenty of hunting"

"What kind of hunting?" I asked

"The skank kind of hunting" he replied nonchalantly.

"Sounds disgusting" I moaned

"True, but at least we would be ridding the world of a great evil"

The drive wasn't too bad once we made it onto the M50 from the M1 heading south toward Bray. It was very green in Ireland, greener than I had ever remembered it to be but I hadn't been here in a few centuries.

"When was the last time you were here Jane?" Alice asked as though she could read my mind

"13th Century" I told matter-of-factly, Alice and Jasper both looked a little dumb-founded "And if I can remember correctly, I had to wear some fairly hefty battle armour" a small smile crept across my face as I remembered those days, the days where I could swing a sword a hew my enemies down as if I was harvesting them, and in some ways I was.

"But Carlisle said that neither you or Alec were with the Volturi when he was there" Esme began to argue

"That is very true, Alec and I only caught the last year of Carlisle's tenure, for the rest of it Alec and I were in Germany making sure the Franks and the Prussians didn't destroy themselves completely"

"Why would you do that?" Alice asked

"The Volturi have always been about keeping the secret of our existence, and when the Franks and Prussians were killing each other some vampires decided to be where the blood was, decided not to be very conspicuous" I looked over at them, a new sense of respect drawn on their faces "That was just before we destroyed the Romanians, because their previous leader was the most obvious, he nearly outed us to the world, and as it is, the very reason Vampires exist in human fiction is because of this man"

"Who was it?" Arthur asked in awe

"Vlad the Impaler, mind that was during the Ottoman war, I'm getting my centuries confused" I finished "Are we nearly there?"

"Not quite, we just passed Monkstown, maybe another half hour, I haven't done this drive since I was human" Arthur explained

"So you and Alec weren't part of the Salem witch burnings?" Jasper inquired

"No" I replied "Alec and I were born in England, and we are about 900 years old"

"About?" Esme asked

"Calendars weren't as reliable or as available back then as they are now, even for the Volturi, but from human research we were able to get an approximate date, and I don't like to think about my human life" And then there was silence.

We got into Bray around 11 in the morning, it was quite in the village, not sleepy as there was plenty activity, but it was silent, and a sense of foreboding settled over me, the same sense seemed to evade Arthur, he looked bright and eager and was almost bouncing on his seat, I looked back and saw Jasper looked tense and Alice looked sad and Esme looked soft and sincere, I sat back in my seat and furrowed my eyebrows.

"Arthur" I started "Where exactly are we staying?" I phrased my question carefully, saying each word perfectly and slowly

"You'll see, it's a surprise" He beamed at me, and I couldn't help but think who it was going to be a surprise for. Eventually we pulled up in the small courtyard of a Georgian town house, it was tidy, neat and clean, I saw Arthur looked a bit more relaxed and peaceful as he looked at the house. He was the first to get out and he ran as humanly as his excitement would allow him and pulled out a key I had seen on his key-ring before, then Alice put her hand on my shoulder and whispered in my ear

"Go, he is going to need you in a few seconds" and then she was gone back to the car and a ran next to him, just in time to see him crumple a piece of paper in his hand, he hunched his shoulders and bowed his head. I was there in the next second I put my arms around his shoulders and put my head in next to his.

"What is it?" I asked softly "What happened?"

"He took it" Arthur said sadly, as sad as I had ever his voice "This was my house, I bought when I went away from him, this was the symbol of my independence and he took it"

"Who took it?" I asked again, softer this time.

"The Professor, he took it, changed the locks, and told me if I want it, and my things back I have to go to him"

"Oh" I sighed "Its okay, we have our apartment in Paris, and not to mention the manor, and the house in the city, and the other one in London"

"But, this was the first place I called home, I don't want to lose it" And then he started fighting me, trying shake me off, but I held on. I remembered going through this part, the part where I lost the last part of me that was human, it didn't hit me like this though because I still had Alec but I realised that Arthur had nothing left of his that was human. He began struggle more.

"Arthur, Arthur sweetie" I cooed gently "You have to stop, or we will hurt each other"

"I can't" was what he cried out "I can't" And that's when I felt the familiar invisible force trying to throw me off I looked quickly over to the Cullen's, just as I was about to tell them to run, they came over and then Jasper had his hand on Arthur's shoulder and the fighting stopped, but I didn't let go, I decided that I was never going to let go. Arthur was sobbing now, no doubt due to Jasper's influence.

"I want to go in" he said through the dry sobs

"Okay" was my response and I looked at Alice and Esme and again before I could say anything Alice was at the door breaking it open.

The inside of the house was gorgeous, a delightful palette of soft hues, from green, blue, cream and brown. The pale yellow marble floors were glistening and the ornate coving and roof were a clean and crisp white, the house was beautiful, but it was empty, not of soul or character, but empty of objects, it was stripped bear, there wasn't even light fitting left to be seen. Alice looked sombre, Jasper was wary and kept his hand on Arthur and Esme, Esme was the worst, she looked heart-broken, her eyes were sad and her hand was over her mouth, and then I soon realised that she was mirroring my face, my eyes were sad and though I didn't have my hand over my mouth, it was still hanging agape. But worse than that again was Arthur, he looked like his heart had not only been broken, but stolen as well, his eyes were pained.

"Bastard" was all he could say "wouldn't even leave a sock"

"Why would he do this?" Esme asked, Arthur stood up straight, took my arms off his shoulders, but let me put them around his waist, he put his arm around shoulder and pulled me close, and then turned to Esme, his expression was changed, instead of sad and sorry, it was cold and cruel

"Because, I was only ever an investment to that man, he put me through university and school expecting a huge reward at the end, and then when I disappeared I took my money with me but the only thing I couldn't take with me was the house and its contents and so that's what he took" he finished and then started walking toward the stair case, he indicated for everyone to follow and he went downstairs to the kitchen and dining room. The kitchen was the same as upstairs, empty, cupboards and all. Arthur kept walking and then went outside to the garden, again the garden was empty, of all furniture and the plants had grown wild, he walked through to a shed out the back. Arthur opened the door of the empty shed and then went to the back and pulled out a loose brick and took a set of keys out.

"But if we can't stay here, we might as well take the only other thing I left"

"What was it?" I asked

"A car" he said dangling the keys off of his finger "we'll be able to afford ourselves more freedom with two cars"

"Where is it?" Alice asked

"Well I assume it will be in the long-term airport car-park, that's where I left it anyway"

"But would they still have it?" Jasper asked

"Well its technically they can't get rid of it, and they can't sell it, so tomorrow I'll run down with my card and get it, but right now we need to find a place to stay"

"Where are we going to stay? He who knows the area so well" I taunted

"There is a Ritz-Carlton at Powerscourt, its not too far down the road, only about twenty minutes" Arthur explained

"Lets do it" I said and he left the painful Georgian house behind us as we drove through the country to the Powerscourt estate. The whole way there Arthur kept his hand on my leg and kept throwing me sincere smiles.

* * *

A/N: Hullo. Next chapter shouldn't be too far behind, Chop and Change might end up being about 3 chapters long, only because it was stupid of me to make the gaps between the two major arcs 6 months long. Until the next time!


	25. Chop and Change Part 2

Nothing Ever Stays the Same

Chapter 25- Chop and Change Part 2

The Powerscourt Estate was glorious to behold, trees stood tall, and lawns rolled on in their green wonder, flower beds which were well tended and despite the rain on the ground the rain in the trees only served to make the colours more vibrant, more beautiful. The Ritz-Carlton was just as beautiful as the estate, its interior seeped class out of every corner, the furniture was classic and well maintained, and the colour scheme was balanced and pleasing, it wasn't overwhelming and offensive like some luxury hotels I have stayed in, in the past. While the three Cullen's booked a suite with two rooms Arthur and I made the decision that we would book the Presidential suite, if only because then we could host everyone, and even have meetings in the office or in the dining room. The room itself was gorgeous, and almost ethereal, space beyond belief, and everything we could think of needing or wanting in a suite, except for perhaps the Jacuzzi, and sauna, those are things we could have gone without, but the dark wood furnishings were definitely something I wanted.

"I think we should base our suite in the manor on this" I suggested to Arthur

"I think you may be onto something there Jane" he replied, his voice conveying as much awe and admiration as my own did.

"I think we should put our clothes away and the set up the study" I instructed

"Good idea, you put the clothes away and I'll set up the study" Arthur replied in a daze. And as he took the travel case's that had all our computer equipment; A Macbook pro, two iPad's, a iMac and a Mac Pro (in case it escaped you, we of the Volturi are great supporters of Apple), and as Arthur did that I took our suitcases and brought them to the Walk-in wardrobe and began to unpack and organize our things in the wardrobe. I got a strange feeling as I did so, mine and Arthur's things for the first time really being together, sharing this suite together, mixing our stuff together and sharing all our things, the feeling was oddly humbling, it was pleasant and most of all it was comfortable. In the next minute Arthur was standing next to me.

"Would you like me to charge your iPhone" he asked a tone of glee in his voice

"You can just call it phone, you don't need emphasize that its an iPhone every time you ask me" I told him as I fished the object out of my pocket and handed it to him, taking it he said

"I know I don't, but before I joined with the Volturi I only had a HTC"

"Oh you poor depraved child" I retorted sarcastically

"I know, it was so unfair" he moaned as he sauntered out of the bedroom and back to the study.

A few hours later when it was firmly overcast and the rain had stopped Arthur and I went out to the gardens and met up with the Cullen's, they were looking as relaxed as Arthur and I, and now I was getting accustomed to Alice's ability, so if I wanted to meet them I didn't have to call I just had to imagine, when and where and they would be there, it was, in a word, brilliant.

"Any inspiration?" Esme asked as we walked casually walked around the grounds

"Actually" I said, looking at Arthur "lots of inspiration"

"Oh" Esme half exclaimed in surprise

"I think we want to do something quite similar to this" I said as I gestured to the grounds. "Have a main house where myself, Arthur and any guests can stay, a place to host formal occasions, and then have another building like the hotel, but use that as the research facility and then underneath that, create a subterranean base for my military facility. But leave room for the offices and such upstairs."

"That is quite well thought out" Esme said slowly "But that means that we will have to design and build a new building" I nodded eagerly "How big is the property?" she asked

"Marcus said it was as big as this" Arthur said "So space isn't an issue, and neither is money" Esme nodded again

"Alright then, that's what we'll do" she declared "When will we go and see it?"

"Well we will have a break today and tomorrow and then the day after tomorrow we will go and have a look" I said "No point putting stress on it, we have plenty of time"

"How much time?" This time it was Jasper asked

"Well I would like to be back in Volterra in three months, but we do have five months before we have to be back" I explained "And the other's of your family are welcome to visit us, I know you are all close and that three months itself is a long time to be apart"

"Thank-you" Alice said "That is very generous" And from then the walk continued with us discussing little details about the Manor such as fabrics, and colours and wallpaper, furniture and the like, not a terribly interesting way to start the day.

The next day, after a pleasant night of watching movies in our suite, Arthur said goodbye as he ran (literally ran) to the airport to collect his other car. I went down to the terrace and sat down at a table, ordered a tea just for appearances sake and sat outside looking at the mountain, after about an hour of begrudgingly sipping tea Alice came down and sat on the opposite side of the table.

"Esme, did some work last night" is how she began "and she has got her hands on samples and everything for the house"

"Okay" I said in reply, not looking at her, but admiring the view ahead of me "I'll meet you at my suite in a few minutes and we can get to work"

"Do you not want to wait for Arthur?" she asked sweetly

"No, I don't think he would appreciate us waiting for him just so we can pick out fabrics" Alice nodded and then walked off, I finished my disgusting tea and then walked away too, back to my room. Two hours later we were still pouring over all of Esme's research and then Arthur walked in looking quite at peace with himself.

"What took you so long?" I inquired looking up from the particular colour scheme I was scouring

"I hit the traffic unfortunately" he said peering over our work that had taken over the dining room and the dining room table

"How much was your parking?" I asked in jest

"Expensive, very expensive, not to mention the attendant decided to give me a very long lecture on my irresponsibility, but I bore through it, apologized profusely, and I got a discount on my parking as a result"

"A discount?" Esme said "that was very nice of them"

"Not really" Arthur retorted "I still spent about ten thousand Euro in parking, next time I won't leave my car unattended for ten months though" he threw his hands above his head and sat down in a seat "How goes the hunt?" he asked, I held up to different colour schemes

"Which one do you want for the downstairs bathrooms?" I asked him, he stared blankly at me, and then at Esme and Alice, both of them were staring at him eagerly awaiting his answer and then he stood up suddenly

"I'm going to find Jasper and leave you girls to it" he told us as he backed out of the room

"He's on the terrace defeating old men in chess" Alice called after him and then when he had left the suite she turned to me "What is it about colour schemes and fabric swatches that have men running for the mountains?" and then we all laughed.

At dawn the next day Arthur and I got dressed for the day, the day that we finally got to see our new home. I put on a purple Gucci sweater dress, black tights, a pair of Alexander McQueen boots and my black Burberry coat. Today Arthur and I joined the Cullen's in the breakfast where we ate our faux breakfast, went to the bathrooms to get rid of it, and then got into the two cars and drove for the manor. Arthur's car was, for the record, a Mercedes C-Class sedan that was graphite coloured, it had leather interior and an automatic transmission (I was about to tease him for it, but he gave me a look that suggested he had a good reason). Arthur drove in the lead with me in the car and the Cullen's followed behind through the winding country roads, which would have been dangerous for a human, but for a vampire they were just fun. The gates to our manor were rusted and overgrown with vine, as we pushed the open they groaned with protest and once we were on the property we began driving over a slight incline, the old gravel road was marked on either side by thick hedge and overgrown trees, as it was winter the trees had lost their leaved and were bare, but because it was almost spring bulbs of new life were beginning to show on the branches. After about eight hundred metres the hedge and trees ended suddenly and then we were surrounded by two grass patches which were same as the trees and hedges, overgrown, and as my line of sight followed the road ahead of me, my eyes meet with a glorious sight. The manor was beautiful, it bore a striking resemblance to Woburn Abbey in England, as a matter of it looks almost identical to it, the Palladian Architecture was striking, its symmetry poetic, it looked strong and sturdy. The field that the house itself was situated in wasn't overly big, as a matter of fact, there was hardly any space at the sides of the house before the thick forestry began again, it made the house look as though the manor was nestled snugly in the forest. We pulled the cars up alongside the entrance, all three stories of the manor standing tall and proud over us, as we got out I noticed the Cullen's faces and they all looked surprised.

"I think this is going to take a lot longer than expected" I declared

"You might be on to something there love" Arthur replied as he wondered at the building "Aro, Caius and Marcus must have been sitting on this for a few centuries" he then commented

"How do you mean?" I asked him

"What I mean to say is that, where Palladian Architecture is concerned, it has been long thought that Castle house was the best Ireland had to offer" he paused and then looked at me "If anyone knew that a replica of Woburn Abbey was sitting in Wicklow, I think it would be safe to say that it wouldn't be this secluded" he finished and all I could do was stare at him

"Palladian architecture, Woburn Abbey, next you and your surprisingly good human memory are going to tell me when this was built" I snapped at him, and I was jealous, it had taken me centuries to learn all of what Arthur just seemed to memorize in sixteen human years.

"Well if Woburn Abbey was rebuilt in 1744, around the time of Palladius' rise in popularity in England, then I would suggest that this wouldn't be too far behind, no later than 1755"

"How did you know that?" I demanded of him

"I had an eidetic memory as a human, I never read the same thing twice, and it would take me no more than an hour to memorize a five hundred page book, I had a lot of time, especially when one considers that I never had to study" he said as if reciting something, I rolled my eyes at his explanation, turned around to the Cullen's and said

"With the history lesson done, shall we inspect the damage?" they nodded and then we began to walk toward the front door, Alice had a skip in her step, a consequence of her positive attitude, Jasper walked, rather, sauntered after her and Esme gracefully strolled next to me as Arthur walked with a calculated walk, what I mean by that it is that it was a perfect heel-toe walk and that he was obviously putting thought into every step he made. The interior of the manor was wrecked, it would appear that several decades, perhaps even centuries of decay were not flattering for it, the mould and damp festered and the wallpaper peeled, the floor was scuffed and faded, the staircase was in tatters and the chandelier lay a crumpled wreck on the floor. I loved it, the house wreaked of character and potential and I craved to start work so I could buff and shine the house to its original glory.

"The good thing is no one knows that this is here so we can do what we like and the conservation council won't come after our blood" Arthur said cheerfully as he looked around.

"I know we are vampires, but how are we going to get this done" Esme moaned

"Team work" Arthur suggested, everyone, including myself, looked at him sideways as if he just pointed out the most obvious thing in the world. "You girls, go and get your samples, go to every room and decide what it'll be and what you want there and measure up for materials, while Jasper and I take a walk around and decide what needs to be done to spruce up the garden and the exterior" he explained this and then we all nodded

"That will work nicely" Alice declared as she stared into the middle distance, obviously mid-premonition "And when we're finished everyone meet back here and decide how we will proceed"

Even moving and talking and just about doing everything at supernatural speed did not help make the job any easier, the manor was very large and it had a lot of rooms, all of which needed to be re-decorated. In the end we found ourselves the schematics for the house and we delegated what rooms would become what and gave them all a typecast, then we separated and measured up different parts of the house then we came back to what was once the master study and put all our measurements together, worked out the price and then created a code for each product and on the schematic wrote in each room the products that would be used.

"That's that finished" Alice declared as Esme finished writing the final product code "And just in time, the boys will be in the entrance hall in a minute" and then we casually walked down the stairs, and through various halls and passageways and found our to the entrance hall just in time to see Arthur and Jasper stroll in laughing and hitting each other.

"Glad to see you were as busy as us" I snapped at them, Jasper jolted to attention but Arthur remained relaxed, the smile still plastered on his face.

"Well since you are so wound up" Arthur began in a sarcastic tone "It would be apparent that you haven't seen what the back garden looks like" and then he held his arm out and beckoned me forward "come along, some things have to be seen" and then when I walked up to him he grabbed my hand and essentially dragged me out the front door and then we picked up his pace as we stormed around the corner of the house and down a narrow path that ran between the house and the forest and then at the end of the path we emerged and both the house and the forest ended and next thing I knew I was looking at was a large grassy expanse that sloped down into a river, it faced into the east and so the sun was illuminating the entire back of the manor, it was simply one of the most beautiful things I had ever seen.

"The grass is going to need cutting, and Jasper and I have planned for a proper garden to be out here, but when we are finished it will look better" Arthur said softly

"That is perfect, this IS perfect" I exclaimed, the place was just so big, so secluded and it was ours do with what we wanted. Esme, Jasper and Alice were behind us then in another minute and we looked out over the horizon together.

"I don't think we are going to need the extra building" Esme said and Arthur and I nodded

"I also think we should focus on fixing up a couple of rooms like our studies, bedroom, bathroom and a couple of guest suites" I said

"How come?" Jasper asked

"This is going to take a while and I think we should move in, driving to and from Powerscourt everyday is just going to be a waste of time"

"That is a very good idea" Alice commented as she stood forward and looped her arm in mine and continued to look over the horizon. In the horizon was a view of Sugar-Loaf mountain and forest and more importantly the Wicklow mountains, it was perfect, and now I was excited to break from the Volturi, especially if this is what I was coming to.

By the end of the week we had transformed the interior of the house beyond recognition, I had spent most of my time going through each room and repairing the ornate coving and I worked very closely with Rosalie who was putting up the wallpaper in each room. The reason that Rosalie was here was the same reason that Emmet was also here, we needed the help and now we had the means to support them it wasn't an issue because we were now moved into the manor and we could work day and night repairing it. Emmet and Jasper were working on the garden, they had spent the first day trimming hedges and trees on the drive in, as well as fixing up the gate and the gate house, and then they worked on cleaning up the front of the manor, they had bought all sorts of tools for cleaning the garden now the front of the house was lush, trim and green. Now they were working on the back, drawing out lines for paths and garden beds. Esme and Alice were running through the house putting the floors down, once they finished placing the carpet and the timber down they started in the entrance hall placing down the pale cream marble tiles down and then moved through the rest of the house. Arthur was undoubtedly the busiest, as he was the once who could do the work of ten men at once he moved around the house doing all the electrical work and all the plumbing and hanging all the lights, not to mention he was simultaneously acting as a crane and moving rolls of carpet and wallpaper into the house as well as crates and pallets of materials, thankfully for all our work Arthur was incredibly focused and was well able to do everything at once, it was like a secondary gift that he had where he could compartmentalize different aspects of his frontal lobe and have them all work independently.

"I can't believe that I am actually here working nicely with Jane of the Volturi" Rosalie commented one day

"I've been saying the same thing for several days now as well" I replied

"Well now that I'm working with you I can tell that you aren't as bad as I thought you were" she continued

"The funny thing is" I said as I leant back on my ladder and inspected my work "I was as bad as you thought I was"

"What changed?" she asked and then she looked at me "Like I have to ask, you two can hardly stop looking at each other" if I could have blushed, that would have been one of those moments "Not that it's a bad thing" Rosalie carried on "I mean to say that we were all like that when we first met our mates" and then she smiled at me "in any case, you are doing a lot better than Edward and Bella"

"How so?" I asked out of curiosity

"You haven't gone and nearly had your whole family killed, you haven't started a fight with shape-shifter's, and most importantly you didn't start a feud a vengeful vampiress" she said matter of factly

"I am so sorry for the Victoria fiasco, I would have stopped it, but I was following orders, and I wasn't the type to break from orders back then"

"So what did you do then?" Rosalie asked "I mean it looked as if you just left us to be slaughtered by Victoria" It was harsh to hear, but I suppose I deserved it

"I knew about the shape-shifters" I said after a moment, and Rosalie looked genuinely surprised "I knew you had a treaty with them, and Aro had told me about Jacob and Wolves after he read Alice and Edwards minds in Volterra" she still looked shocked "the Volturi are very good at gathering Intel without raising suspicion, that is why we have lasted as long as we have, but I knew that at least the main body of your family would survive, the reason Alice didn't see that coming is because she assumed if we wanted to hurt you we would kill you all, when really the orders were quite simple, find a way to get rid of Edward and Bella" the look of surprise drained from Rosalie's face and it was replaced by acceptance

"So you played the hand as well as you could without getting yourselves involved personally" she said dryly

"As I said, I am so sorry, but as I said I was just following orders and at the time Aro thought that Edward and Bella were a liability" and then Esme and Alice were at the door

"So that's why the entire guard went to Forks" Esme said softly

"Well after the Victoria incident, Aro wanted to attend to it personally and the child was just to good an opportunity, but he knew if just some of us went we wouldn't win so then the whole guard had to come, and when the whole guard has to come so do the wives"

"Speaking of the wives" Alice said "I've noticed that they have become a lot more active as of late"

"Yes, they have long since fought for freedom that has recently been granted, they are very old, very skilled, and more importantly very powerful, I wouldn't get into a fight with Athenadora or Sulpicia if I could help it"

"Why is that?" Rosalie asked

"They are extremely disciplined and I don't think my power would affect them, nor do I think that Alec's ability would stop them either" I explained to them

"What about Arthur's ability?" Alice asked

"That would stop them alright, but then again Arthur's ability is physical and if it didn't affect them I would be extremely worried" Alice got a little smile on her face as I assume she was envisaging the scene.

As if on schedule, three weeks after we began work on the manor we were finished, as a matter of fact we would have finished earlier but then Emmet got the crazy idea of putting a few fountains into the gardens so we spent two days installing them but now that we were finished the manor looked gorgeous.

"I think we are almost open for business" Arthur declared as we looked at it "When the war is over we just need to put the time and money into furnishing it, not to mention buying everything that we are going to need to get our facility running"

"Glad you took the extra time to convert the stables into a garage" I asked him

"You can bet that I am, we are going to have a fair bit of traffic in and out of here" Then I looked at him and asked

"Are you ready?" and he nodded in response and we turned and looked at the Cullen's who were standing behind us and admiring the building then they looked at us as we turned to them and Alice let out a little excited squeal and I put my finger up to my mouth to signal to her to be quiet. "As a token of our gratitude, for helping us with this" and I gestured to the house "Arthur and I would like to give you something"

"What are you two planning?" Esme asked suspiciously, we walked forward so we were standing in front of them

"We would like to give you this" I said as I handed her over a key to a house

"A key to the manor?" she asked

"No" Arthur was the one to answer "A key to a house that is yours, a little birdy told us you haven't a single property here in Ireland" Rosalie, Emmet, Esme and Jasper all looked shocked at the gift, and then Alice got the key and eyed it carefully

"This is the key to the house you own in Bray" she said to Arthur

"I know" he said "I got some lawyers the day after we got here and they got all my stolen property and then some humans put it all back where it belongs" he looked at Alice and she looked dumbfounded again "but I can't move back in because then my secret will be blown so I'm gifting you the house and everything in it, bar my clothes" Everyone was silent for a few more seconds and then Esme rushed over and pulled Arthur and I into a hug

"Thank-you so much, I know how much that house meant to you, we'll take excellent care of it" she said sweetly and gratefully her voice once again full of motherly sincerity, and after some more hugs and few handshakes we were separated from them again.

"You can go back to Volterra now, go back to the rest of your family" I said to them, and they looked perplexed again "We won't need your help in London, something tells me the house is in perfect order and the only thing that needs to be done is furnishing"

"There's something else you aren't telling us" Emmet said

"You should tell them now" Alice warned "Or I'll tell them later" I shrugged my shoulders in defeat

"Do you remember the scientist Joham?" I asked them and they all nodded "Aro wants him brought to Volterra" and they nodded again, but this time it was a different nod, a say-no-more kind of nod

"So he's in London then?" Alice asked, I nodded, "Well Jasper and I will come with you" she announced

"Absolutely not, this is for the Volturi, I will not let you endanger yourselves anymore than has been asked by Aro" I argued back

"Firstly, we are technically part of the Volturi now that we work for you, and secondly, it was Jasper and I who found Nahul and I would like to tell him that I witnessed the justice, and thirdly, you'll never find him without me" by the time she finished she was in my face, and if she were human I would have imagined here to be red in the face.

"Fine" I said in defeat, and Alice relaxed with a victorious smile "But if you get yourselves into immortal danger don't expect Arthur and I to come and rescue you, I don't care how valuable you are."

With everything settled Rosalie, Emmet and Esme packed their bags into the Volvo and left for the airport and then Arthur and Jasper backed our bags into the Mercedes and we got in the car, Arthur driving, and we drove for Dun Laoghaire and the ferry to England and then for London. I had never met Joham, and until recently not one member of the Volturi hade heard of him, and I got the feeling that this was going to be more difficult than we could anticipate, he knew how old he was, how skilled he was, and more importantly how dangerous he was, but none of that seemed to matter as we sat in the car listening to Florence + the Machine and chatting lively about nothing in particular and that was a comfortable feeling, the feeling of having friends.

* * *

A/N: Sorry for this shorter and boring chapter, next chapter is going to feature some action and then from there on its a well paced jog to the climax and then leisurely stroll to resolution. Please review, I do like to know how I'm going, and if you don't I feel like I'm fumbling in the dark. Talk to you next chapter xx.


	26. Chop and Change Part 3

Nothing Ever Stays the Same

Chapter 26- Chop and Change Part 3

Thoroughly disturbed by the vomiting humans, I sat next to Arthur on the ferry across to England. If the heaving and hoeing and sea sick stomachs weren't enough to make me glad to be dead than I wasn't quite sure what would. The vomit, and the associated smell almost wanted me to start hunting animals like the Cullen's, but then the realization hit me that animals vomit as well, it was a cruel reality but it reality none the less. As I pondered my unlikely change in diet I was also aware of the philosophical discussion occurring next to me between the others.

"Personally I've always been a fan of Nietzsche's Golden Mean, and Epicurus" Arthur said flatly "And I love the ideas of balance and mediation"

"But it has flaws, like some people interpret it to mean the be gluttonous sometimes" Jasper argued

"True, but sure Apollo himself said 'everything in moderation, including moderation'" was Arthur's retort. And so the argument continued, Arthur held his ground very well and when I asked him how he managed it he told me.

"When you go to a prestigious college when you're ten you have to learn quickly to argue or else everyone will be dismissive and you may as well not exist to them" he looked a bit wistful as he reminisced "though, the benefit of arguing with a vampire is that if you argue it well enough they will concede your point, with humans, you could argue it perfectly and they would still be dismissive, arrogant, conceited meat bags."

"You're still upset about it?" I asked him

"I don't care how intelligent I was when I was ten, it was wrong to send me to college, it was cruel, they were cruel and life was much, much to difficult for me to handle" he seemed to lament this to me, but the cruel thing was that I understood, we may have came from vastly different times and situations but I knew what it was like to be burdened with a gift that you couldn't control, and while I may have burned for my gift, Arthur, Arthur was thrown into the deep end of the pool that is human society and was left to paddle and struggle. And then a second realization hit me, like Aro saved me from the fire before I truly burned, I had saved Arthur from the water before he truly drowned. We were opposites in more ways than I would care to count, but we were both children of the same circumstance.

The drive to London was quite boring; I was the driver now, since I knew England and London the best of everyone. Arthur was quietly sitting in the front with me scratching things down in a notepad occasionally I would hear him mutter things like 'cognitive dissonance' or 'Maslow' or once I heard him mutter 'couldn't possibly be Freudian' I settled that he must be developing hypothesis to test, or rather, trying to use human theories to explain vampire behaviour, it was something I could have done, but then again I didn't have the natural persuasion, or rather, flair for it that Arthur had, if something wouldn't fit I'm sure he would develop his own theories to explain and describe it. I hastened across the English countryside for I wanted nothing more than to be in London and beginning the manhunt, we had lost three months working on that mansion and there was still plenty to be done, but right now we needed to get to Joham and then back to the Volturi, we only had three months left until the battle and I really wanted to be at home planning and scheming. To get my mind off of the battle, the gore, the death, the violence, and my ruthless love for it I thought of my wardrobe. I had left a fair bit of clothing in Ireland in the mansion, and I had bought more to bring with me here just so I could have something that was seasonal, then I could leave some of those clothes here and so on so forth, it was nice to have many locations to put my clothes, it meant that I wouldn't have to carry so much around with me. Though for missions, I thought, I may still only just wear the one set of clothing to ease the burden. When eventually I pulled up outside the old Georgian building that was to be another one of mine and Arthur's homes I wasn't impressed, it was quite standard, and not too much to look at, that was I suppose its greatest benefit to us as vampires and the greatest pitfalls to us as home owners. When we stepped in the door it smelt of wet-paint and sawdust, as I looked around I saw that it had only been newly renovated, it also smelt of vampire, strongly of vampire. I looked around edgily and saw Alice looking a content as a daisy just standing around not a bother to her, so I went into the first room off the hallway. It was a sitting room, and surely enough sitting down in a Queen Anne high-back was Sulpicia.

"You have surely taken your time in getting here Jane" she said in her reprimanding tone "I have been waiting for hours"

"I am terribly sorry Sulpicia" I apologized giving a brief curtsy, and everyone followed suite, Arthur and Jasper giving little bows. "London traffic is more appalling than I can ever remember it to be"

"You are excused, just be more conscientious next time" she said with a wave of her hand "Take a seat all of you" she invited "I have some information on the vampire Joham for you" we all sat down facing her, and she looked extremely pleased with herself smiling through her eyes at all of us as if we were her children.

"What information do you have?" I asked warily

"As it turns out" she began, adjusting her posture so now she looked as if she were telling us hearsay "He is extremely violent, and whenever anyone attempts to confront him he becomes a liability, he makes a scene in front of the humans"

"Is that all?" I asked her, somewhat disappointed

"Absolutely not child, because of his tendency to cause a scene you must go and a sitting with the Queen" Now I was surprised, this is something that had taken me off guard well and truly, sensing the obvious surprise Sulpicia continued on "Elizabeth knows of our existence and has done a lot of covering up for us in the past, and with something potentially dangerous about to happen it is important we forewarn her so she can be quick to act in case of falling buildings and dying humans"

"When will we be meeting with her?" I asked

"Tomorrow you will see her, and the day after that you will try and capture Joham, but as Aro has said he is not a loss if he must be killed, for that is his fate anyway." Sulpicia furthered herself "And do dress nicely, and don't wear anything inappropriate" she added with a sneer at my attire.

An hour later Sulpicia was gone, like a whirlwind she had left nothing but confusion behind her. Tomorrow Arthur and I were going to go and see Queen Elizabeth at Buckingham palace, that part hadn't quite sunk in, it wasn't because I was flattered that I was meeting her, I am nine hundred years old, I don't get flattered at the idea of meeting Queens and I had met some of the greatest Queen's in history, I think it was a matter of trust, I had never met any of the monarchs that Aro had associated with since Elizabeth the first. And then very consciously I looked down at my outfit

"I need to go shopping" I said suddenly rising to my feet

"Could you pick me up something to wear as well?" Arthur asked

"Why can't you go and get it yourself?" I asked him back

"I thought now would be an opportune time to get a haircut, Elizabeth isn't fond of long hair on men" he said matter-of-factly

"And how would you know that?" I demanded of him

"I've met her before of course" I dumbly stared at him in a way that asked him to get a move on "well, only briefly, when I was thirteen, but I still met her"

"What would you like me to pick up for you then?" I asked in frustration

"You know what, don't worry about it" he said wisely "I'll drop into the Burberry store in an hour and get something"

"You do that then" I snapped as I left. I couldn't quite figure out why I was so snappy, maybe it was Sulpicia, or maybe it was jealousy, whatever it was I couldn't pin it and it was making me quite aggravated. After much roaming through the high-end London fashion I eventually found a dress that I could wear tomorrow, It was bright red which I thought would help drain my eyes and make them less threatening, it was plain and modest, it had sleeves and a collar and in its way it was timeless. I then went on the hunt for a coat that I could wear, as well as shoes, because I soon realised that they were needed because I had only really brought casual clothes with me considering that I thought I was going to be renovating and killing, not sitting down in a palace enjoying fine company and discussing the possible demolition of London. I eventually settled on a pair of five inch Louboutin's and a coat from The Row to compliment my Giulietta dress.

When eventually I arrived home Arthur had gotten his haircut, and if the bag hanging on the banister next to the stairs was anything to go by he had at least picked up a suit for tomorrow, I wasn't sure he had gotten the haircut, though as I walked into the living room where everyone was now congregated watching the news I discovered that he had gone and let Alice loose on his hair.

"What do you think?" He asked me when I walked in the door. His hair was shorter in the back and the sides but the top and the fringe were still quite long, coming down past his eye in a single messy sweep.

"Its nice" I told him "But will Elizabeth like it?"

"Like I care" he scoffed

"I thought you were getting it cut for her?" I asked

"Well what I meant is that seeing her would be a good excuse to have it done" I eyed him suspiciously and then went about my business, tomorrow was going to be a big day and I couldn't afford to waste my time fussing over Arthur and his hair. I spent the rest of the night wandering through the house seeing what there was to be seen, so far it had a lot of old books that I had never seen before, old books that I got excited just thinking about, it had some very expensive paintings and some clothes from the 1800's. When I got back to the living room Arthur was internet shopping, Alice had somehow acquired a lot of flowers a vases and was arranging the lot of them and Jasper was shining his shoes.

"There is a car coming at 9:30 to collect us Arthur, I hope you and your shopping will be finished and ready to go by then."

"Of course my love" his said absently, eyes not leaving the computer as he shopped away

"What are you even doing on that stupid thing?" I demanded angrily

"Just because its new technology doesn't its stupid sweetie" he replied, absently once again "And I am buying us more Apple things so all we have to do when we move about is bring an iPad each, and then we will be all connected anywhere we go; I am expanding our network, it will be amazing"

"That's all very well and good, but what has it to do with anything"

"Well, it has to do with nothing, but tomorrow I am letting Elizabeth in on my plans to sell research, she has hands in just about every single major science society in Europe, not to mention the Nobel society"

"Are you suggesting that you are going to extort the Queen of England?"

"More or less" he replied still absorbed in his computer comings and goings.

The next morning I descended the stairs in my new outfit, Arthur was two steps behind me in his black suit with a white collarless shirt, buttoned all the way to the top, he was doing something on his iPhone and when we hit the landing he slipped in his front pocket and then walked to the front door and opened it for me. Just as he opened it our car had arrived, perfect timing, mainly on Alice's part though. The car drive slowly through London making its way across to Buckingham in its own time, the drive kept shooting Arthur and I wary glance in the centre mirror, I smiled inwardly, obviously he was worried and suspicious that he was picking up two teenagers. When eventually we arrived one of the palace officials me us and brought upstairs, he kept his distance though, being careful not to involve himself with us, being overly polite. When we arrived outside Elizabeth's office he gestured for us to stop and he proceeded inside to announce us. Elizabeth sat behind her desk in all her regal glory, her weathered eyes filled with caution and danger, it would appear, I thought, that she puts on a different face when dealing with immortals. We were invited to sit, and so we did, but it wasn't until that her guards and officials were out of the room that any words were exchanged.

"When Sulpicia arrives on my doorstep and tells me that two of her generals need a meeting" Elizabeth began, her voice was cold and steady "I make it my business to see them as soon as I can, but I will admit, I did not expect to see you Arthur and?" she finished looking in my direction inviting me to say my name.

"Jane" I told her, her eyes flashed with danger as I said my name, and with recognition, that meant that my reputation had preceded me.

"Jane" she repeated in acknowledgement "So, tell me what brings you here, what was so important that I had to cancel my meeting with the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury"

"There is a very dangerous vampire currently residing in London, he isn't a mass-murdering danger, rather, he will likely only take one victim, but that one victim is what worries us" I explained to her,, and she simply nodded

"What kind of dangerous is this vampire then?"

"He is a scientist" Arthur continued

"Like you" Elizabeth petted

"Not like me, because there is such a thing as half-vampires, little is known about them, we don't know if they are dangerous or harmless, whether a good life will change their attitudes, Joham, this vampire, copulates with young women in order to make these half-vampires" Elizabeth changed her posture, it seemed this conversation just began to interest her "He is out of control and we have been assigned to bring him back to Aro"

"Why have you come to tell me this, I have no need of this information, the Volturi have conducted many missions without bothering to tell me"

"Your Majesty" I said "this is an extremely resilient vampire, he has spent a long time under the radar, and we do not know what lengths he will go to in order to avoid being incarcerated"

"What are you trying to tell me exactly?" Elizabeth warned

"Keep a tight thumb on the media, things could get out of hand" Arthur said bluntly

"If that is all the news you have to give me then you best leave" Elizabeth said just as bluntly "I had always hoped to see you again Arthur, unfortunately it was not under the circumstances I would have desired"

"Maybe, if we ever meet again, it will be under more fortunate circumstances" was Arthur's reply

"I doubt we should ever get to meet again, unlike you I am dying, not of anything other than age"

"Don't envy us Elizabeth" Arthur told her softly "We won't die, because we can't die twice" he smiled gently at her "and anyway, we will meet again for I have a Promethean proposition for you"

"Very well, you may leave" And with that we were gone, our whirlwind visit to Buckingham over and our next task staring us in the eyes, willing us to engage it.

"We attack tonight, Arthur and I will hunt him, Alice and Jasper you clean up after him" I declared as we sat in the living room, twilight was creeping through the room as we deliberated over what we were going to do, and it didn't take long to come up with the plan because we four being such a creative group we managed. Alice couldn't foresee what was going to happen because anyway she approached it half-castes where going to be involved. I threw myself into my pre-battle routine, tightly pulling my hair into a bun and applying only the slightest amount of make-up, eye-liner with a touch of beige eye-shadow; then I moved to my suitcase pulled out a black Temperley-London blouse and tucked it into a pair of skin colour skinny jeans.

"Don't you think this might be a little soon?" Arthur asked as he leaned on the doorway, I looked at him through the mirror on my vanity.

"I know you're worried, I know you would prefer to know what we are about to up against, but no amount of spying is going to tell us anything, we won't know anything until we have him separated from the half-vampires" I explained to him as I slipped on my Giuseppe Zanotti pumps (a reasonable 3 inches).

"Then might I propose a more dangerous plan?" Arthur asked me, I smiled at him and nodded "I think that Jasper and I should separate the half-vampires and you and Alice go for him, I know it would mean putting them at risk, but they have expressed desire to help us, they trust us, so I think it's due time that we trust them" I turned around on my seat to look at Arthur, his face sober and set with determination

"Why didn't you put this forward earlier?" I asked

"I thought it would be better to confer with you first" he said shortly, I nodded to show that I was listening, but I was thinking that it at least made more sense than my plan, always leaving Alice and Jasper out of the danger could prove to be dangerous for them and for us, they were experienced and skilled, they had also put in a lot of effort into trusting us and in return getting us to trust them, and I did, I did trust them.

"Will you tell Alice and Jasper of the change in plan?" I asked Arthur, he beamed at me and then left. I pulled out my phone a dialled for Aro.

"_Good evening Jane_" came his voice

"Good evening Aro, I wanted to inform you that we are a go ahead for the mission to apprehend Joham tonight" I told him curtly

"_Ah yes_" he responded as if I had sparked his memory "_I am glad you called, there has been a change of plan_"

"Oh?" I inquired

"_Yes, new Intel tells us that Joham is as methodical as he is mad, you are now to seize his research and kill him, as well as assess whether or not his spawn are dangerous or not, if they are not you are to bring them here where we will do our best relocate them, if they however, prove to be dangerous, I trust you will do the right thing?" _

"Of course Aro" I said as flatly as I could manage, because this change of plan disturbs me, this was no longer a reconnaissance mission, and it was a massacre. I was so wound up in my reverie that I hadn't notice Aro hang up.

I slipped on my coat and I went downstairs, Alice and Jasper were waiting for me, both looking quite serious, a significant departure from the joy that Alice always seemed to suppressing; Arthur came down the stairs behind me and put his one hand on each of my shoulders and whispered in my ear so that only I would hear.

"I know what it is that Aro asked of you, I want to know if you are ready?"

"Do Alice and Jasper know?" I whispered back

"Most likely, it's written all over your face my love" he told me with sympathy

"Well there isn't any time to waste" I said "Are we ready to go?" I addressed the room.

"Now is the time, if we don't go now, we won't go at all" Jasper replied

"Very well" I said and I moved off the stair case, out the front door and into the streets of London. Tonight, I thought, blood will be spilled, and the people of London will be none-the-wiser.

The sun had just dipped below the horizon when we arrived outside the warehouse that Joham and his experiments lay. I looked at the others and we all seemed to be thinking the same thing

"Together" Alice whispered and we all advanced toward the warehouse. Bursting through the door, I saw something that I had not ever seen in my 900 hundreds years of existence had I ever seen before. 9 men were strung up by manacles, hanging from the roof, stripped of their clothing, and their dignity, upon further inspection there were 3 women all of whom were confined to a cage. There was no sign of Joham or his daughters, though the evidence was strung up and staring me in the face. Once the initial shock had worn off we split up, Alice went to free the caged women and Jasper and Arthur had gone to release the men, I went looking for Joham's research; I found the research, as well a room filled with rotting corpses, I covered my nose and went out of the room to find the others.

"We have to burn the evidence" I said flatly, Alice's face contorted then when she foresaw what I was about to say "kill the humans as well"

"We can always ask them what they know, there might be a chance that they don't know about us" Arthur begged

"Fine, but ask very carefully" I cautioned him, then I took his hand, looked him straight in the eye "but if they know, or even suspect something, they will have to die" Arthur's only response was a curt nod of his head as he went to question them, Alice joined him. The smell of kerosene pierced my nose and then Jasper was standing next to me

"This used to be my favourite part, the mirthless killing" I told him

"Are you telling me you've lost your penchant for killing?" he asked me, I looked at him and cocked my eyebrow

"No need to be facetious" he chuckled, and so did I "What I mean to say is that now I have a new found respect for life, these people are innocent, and when I get my hands on that pig I will wring the life out of him" I was slightly taken aback by the violence in my voice, it was as if I was my old self again. Arthur and Alice returned then, they looked grim and I knew we had to do what we did not want to do, I sighed.

"We are right next to the Thames, let's just break their necks and dump them" Arthur said, his voice was hard and bitter.

"That seems best" I responded

"We have ten minutes before my vision goes dark, Joham will be back then" Alice said, her voice was now a deadpan. The disposal was hard, but it went quickly enough, I was the one who broke the necks, because I was the one who was most accustomed to it, Alice, Jasper and Arthur disposed of the bodies.

"30 seconds" Alice called, and in the next second the warehouse was up in flames. There is no time to run now Joham; it's time to meet your fate.

Precisely 30 seconds had elapsed when a wiry vampire with wispy black hair arrived, his 3 daughters in tow, all four of them looked aptly horrified, horrified that someone had found them, that someone knew their secrets.

"What is this?" Joham screamed at us "What have you done?"

"My name is Jane of the Volturi, I have come to apprehend you and bring you to justice" I declared to him

"I have heard of you, and of your corrupt ways" Joham said, he had now relaxed because he thought he had the upper hand "I don't think I will be going with you, and I doubt someone so young could hold any authority over me" he was taunting me now

"Let me assure you Joham, that just because you are 400 hundred years old, does not mean you are the oldest here" Joham merely cocked his eyebrow at me "If we are playing this game that way, then, as it stood, I would be the oldest here, at 900 hundred years old; I am twice your age, and I will have your respect" This seemed to irk Joham, I had now usurped him.

"Well I refuse to apprehended by a child and her little friends" Joham declared

"Jasper, sedate those girls" I whispered, then I mustered my voice for the final declaration "If you refuse to apprehended then I will have no other choice but to kill you." That did it, I thought, now Joham was hissing profanities at me, pacing back and forth trying to decide what to do, and then he stopped suddenly, turned around and ran. The chase was on, and before I knew it I was in hot pursuit with Alice running along-side me. Having Alice made the ordeal of chasing Joham simpler, with her foresight directing us through the winding path through the London docks, occasionally we would have to cut him off from making a trip to close to the mortals and then eventually we managed to herd him into a corner.

He turned to face us, the anguish of his fate now heavy on his features.

"Why are you doing this?" he begged of me

"Partly" I began "because I was told to, and I follow orders, and partly because I saw how you treated humans, just because they are our food source, does not make them play-things that we can treat as barbarically as we want" his fight response kicked in when I finished my statement and he lunged at us, before Alice could do anything I stepped to the side and inflicted the full force of my gift upon his fragile body, when he hit the ground, he began writhing and screaming something atrocious and after about three minutes of the torture Alice stopped me.

"Remember why we are here" she said, I nodded; I walked over to Joham's contorted body and brought it to its knees, its eyes gazed up at me in terror.

"What's done is done" I told it, staring back at it with intensity "I can't change the past, and so I can't guarantee the future" and with those final words I ripped the head off Joham from his neck, whatever life force keeping him alive was now gone and when it fell limp at my feet I dropped the head, pulled out a lighter, and set fire to the ruin of the madman.

The plane ride home was sour; I was still pissed off to no end at Arthur and fretting to no end about Aro. Though Arthur and I sat next to each other, the silence was painful, this was primarily because the silence was all because of me, I was the who was bitter and twisted and even though Arthur had made no effort to strike a conversation with me I knew it was because he was content to let me stew in my strife, not even the smooth silk of my new Erdem dress could bear me pleasure. I was grateful that Alice and Jasper kept to themselves, quietly talking to each other as we flew swiftly toward Volterra

"Everything will be fine" Arthur eventually said to me

"You do not Aro as well as I do, everything will not be fine" I snapped

"But I do know Marcus and Caius, Aro would never completely over their heads, and they would not see us in the cold, especially when we are so close to war"

"There are much worse things that Aro can do then to leave us out in the cold"

"True, however it can only last for so long now"

When the plane landed we got in our car and we drove, I still dreaded what Aro would do, what he would say; it was a sad thing to admit at 900 hundred years of age, but much like desperate squabbling teenage girls that I resemble I crave praise and approval from the man whom I consider a father figure and more than that I fear his criticism and his disapproval. This is apparently where Arthur and I differ, Arthur was apparently more emotionally mature than I, he sought approval from his peers; but then that was his weakness, his blatant non-regard of authority, sure he would follow orders now but I fear that if I were to die today Arthur would no longer be part of the Volturi, and in a worst case scenario, there would be no Volturi. The country ceased to fly out of my window as we pulled into the old city of Volterra, driving down the familiar driveway my feelings of anxiousness and foreboding only intensified, but despite all that I got out of the car and walked with my head tall toward my judgment.

"As much as I would take pleasure in waxing nostalgic with you two" Aro's voice boomed across the hall, seemingly taking pleasure in the fact that he had made our meeting public so that everyone could revel in my disgrace. Arthur and I stood in the centre of the room surrounded by the Volturi and our allies.

"Bring the half-vampires to me I said" he continued his arms opened out to the room "and yet when you arrived here today, I found out that you have killed one and let the other two steal away into the night, what I want to know is why my orders where contradicted, care to enlighten me?"

"We had to kill one, the eldest, because she was too devoted to her father" I explained "There was no way to bring her in peacefully, and as you ordered, we were to being them in, or kill them" ensuring that I spoke the last part with upmost clarity I looked Aro dead in the eye, the disdain that he had was crystal clear, but I realized it was no longer about me and what Aro thought of me, it was about us, Arthur and I, and what Aro thought of us; in this moment Aro clearly had no love for us and my attitude was simply reflecting my desire to defend it.

"That may be so" he told me "but what of the other two?"

"That would be me you want to ask Aro" Arthur said "While Jane and Alice were dealing with Joham and the one of the Halflings, Jasper and I were dealing with the other two as well as the mess Joham had made in the warehouse"

"Hmm?" Aro purred, a way of telling Arthur to proceed

"While I was destroying the warehouse and removing all evidence that Joham was there I, mistakenly, let Jasper Cullen deal with the Halflings, it appears that his vegetarian lifestyle has made him weak, it was he who let the other two go"

At first I was shocked, shocked that Arthur was so quick, so ruthless as to place the blame on the Cullen, but then I saw the look of fury that flashed through Aro's eyes and I knew why Arthur had done it. Aro had made a deal with Carlisle that he would not read the mind of any Cullen under any circumstance while they were staying with us. In a sense it was genius, all that had to happen now was for Aro to read both mine and Arthur's minds and we would be clear, that is, if Arthur's memories and thoughts matched what he was doing. But that didn't happen, Aro, obviously aware of Arthur's underhand technique, decided against reading our minds knowing that he wouldn't find anything incriminating.

"Victor is coming tonight" Aro said out of nowhere, "and Jane make sure you dress nicely for his dinner, you will be sitting next to him, waiting on him hand and foot" a malicious smile now painted on his aged face "if we are to convince him to join our war effort then we must offer him only the best we have to offer"

"Of course Aro" I said obligingly, of course on the inside I was freaking out, Victor was a notorious pedophile, and his old age and vampirism did not make him any easier to deal with, famous in our world for being behind many child sex rings as well as his fortune keeping the child pornography industry a float. But despite his obvious flaws he was a powerful vampire, and wielded a lot of power in our world, as he also catered for many of the twisted sexual fantasies of our world, he specialized in secrets and had a gift for knowing exactly what made people wet, having him on our side would mean a lot of allies.

"Arthur, you will be in charge of border control with Alec tonight, we are doubling our security for tonight and will need you to run a tight, orderly and functioning ship alongside Alec"

"As you wish My Lord Aro" was Arthur's response

"Very well, you two are excused, you have an hour to get prepared for tonight"

* * *

A/N: Very sorry for the very late follow up. Hope you enjoy and haven't given up on the story. This chapter see's the end of the another stroy arc, and as of now we have only the war to go.


	27. Future Starts Slow

Nothing Ever Stays the Same

Chapter 27- Future Starts Slow

Not even the smooth silk and delicate lace of my Issa dress could lift my spirits; an evening with pervy-Victor was making my stomach curdle, I shuddered as I slipped on my Louboutin peep-toe pumps and slipped on various items of Jewellery. I felt it prudent to not tell Arthur who, or better yet, what Victor was and I was extremely thankful that Aro needed him to be on border patrol otherwise I fear that Arthur would have had to bear witness to Victor and how he treated women, especially vampires my bodily age.

"Jane?" Arthur queried as his head popped into my room

"Yes?" I answered

"Marcus is here to see you, he'll be in the common room when you're ready" Arthur told me before disappearing "Also" he said, his head reappearing "You look beautiful tonight"

"Thank-you Arthur" I said gratefully "Now go, you'll be late for patrol" and he disappeared again. I gazed at myself in the mirror again, tugging at my dress here and there and when I felt decent I walked out to the common room to see Marcus.

"It is a true pity that you are not wearing that for Arthur" was the first thing Marcus said to me, he was standing by a window and gazing out longingly, he turned to look at me "I am sorry that Aro is punishing you two, after all you did nothing a decent vampire would have done" Marcus then moved closer to the centre of the room, I stayed perfectly still standing beside one of the settees "The years of power it seems, have finally gone to Aro's head, he has become paranoid that everyone is out to usurp him, the decision to disband the Volturi was truly the best decision"

"Why are you telling me this? Marcus?"

"It was my idea to disband the Volturi, and I fear now that I will not live to see the end of this terrible conflict"

"Marcus, you don't know what you are talking about" he looked at me once I had said this, and smiled

"I know Aro killed Didyme" he declared softly "And I know that if we win this war and the Volturi is disbanded then I will be killed, because my usefulness will have run its course and I will have become more trouble than I am worth" he paused and looked at me, I was struggling to process everything that Marcus was saying "However it would just be neater to kill me in the fray of war, and so I think it is prudent that I tell you this; Tonight you are going to be generous and compassionate as well as passionate to Victor, because when the war is over Aro will not disappear as easily as he has promised, and so you will need to surround yourself with allies, and Victor will not forget how you treated him; tonight you will be kind to Victor not because Aro has told you to, but because it will save your life as well as what we are fighting for"

"I understand" I said simply

"Splendid, now if you don't mind I would like to accompany you to the reception hall" Marcus said spritely offering me his hand, I took it and we walked gracefully to the reception hall.

Victor was looking a seedy as ever; his receding, thin white hair had been slicked back, his pasty skin was becoming more translucent though his eyes were still bright and red, there was no dusty film covering them. He was wearing a long plum coloured cloak beneath that though was a oyster coloured silk shirt that has tucked into a pair of crocodile skin pants which tapered off to a pair of shiny brown dress shoes.

"Jane" he exclaimed in his deep Ukrainian accent "such a pleasure to see you again, it has been decades" his arms found me and he snaked his way into a hug

"Victor, always a pleasure to see you" he smiled a toothy grin as one of his hands wormed its way down to grope my ass. Normally I would have pushed him back and scolded him, but in light of my recent conversation with Marcus I decided to break tradition. He broke away from the embrace only to greet everyone else in the reception hall that had come to greet him.

"Now, is someone going to take me to see my old friend Aro" he said in his booming voice, looking me straight in the eye.

"Of course Victor" I said in a soft and pleasant voice "Would you please follow me?"

"Of course my dear" he said as I began to walk him to Aro's office, as I paced through the tunnels of the castle I made sure to sway my hips a sensually as possible, also sometime during the walk I put my hair up into a bun as soon as I had recalled that Victor had a certain something for necks.

"Jane my love" Victor queried "Have you by any chance found your partner?"

"What makes you say that?" I countered

"The way you walk, it has become more sensual, the way you hold yourself, you hold yourself like a vampiress who has been sexually liberated" I laughed, a light laugh and decided to answer his query

"To answer your question I have indeed found my mate, though I have not been 'sexually liberated'"

The meeting with Victor was going well, and ever since I had told him I had found my mate he had become less explicit with me and was treating less like an object, he and Aro seemed to discuss random things until eventually, an hour and a half into the conversation Aro asked Victor if he had heard what was happening.

"Ah, yes" was Victor's response "The war that is splitting the vampire world in two" I raised my eyebrows at that, seemingly "Many of my client's seem to be confused on the topic, perhaps Aro, you would like to shed some light on the issues present?"

"Of course Victor" Aro responded "The Romanian's are attacking the free natured life-styles of the modern vampire, they have already condemned vegetarians, as well as us, and all those who support vegetarians, and who knows, they may go after you and your lifestyle next"

"Romanians don't scare me" Victor declared valiantly "But you do, you and your over powered guard scare me, so tell me why I should side with the man who frightens me instead of the people who are attempting to destroy you?"

"Because, once the fight is over, once the smoke is settled and my allies and I stand victorious a new world order will begin for the vampires, and I will no longer have the power to you destroy if I choose to."

"If you don't have the power, who will?" Victor asked

"No individual will have the power, a vampiric democracy will be in place; you will be able to live in peace, unless a unanimous decision be passed."

From that point on the meeting passed without consequence, and when it ended Victor stood from his seat and said aloud

"I will be present at the battle, as will my allies, but I shall not sway their decision in any way, but nor do I promise that me, or any of my allies will be on your side of the battle" Aro looked as if he was about to jump over the table and rip Victor's head off "I will show myself out" he said as he walked out the door, leaving Aro fuming in his seat.

"Aro…" I began but he cut me off

"Get out of my sight, you traitorous whore, GET OUT" his words cut me like a knife, and I left with out second thought, once outside his office I ran, I ran as fast as I could until I connected with a solid arm, and that arm enclosed around me.

"What happened?" the voice of Caius asked softly, I picked myself up, straightened my shoulders and looked Caius in his eyes

"I don't care, what you have to say, or what favours you have to ask for, but until the battle is upon us, you keep Aro away from me" I said trying to control the amount of venom in my words, and to his benefit Caius didn't ask questions he simply nodded his head and carried on his way.

When I got back to my room, I all but ripped the dress of my back and I did rip my stockings off, I kicked my shoes off and splintered the wood on my bed post and smashed a mirror, I tore out the earrings and relished in the pain that it brought me and the relief that followed as my body repaired itself and then I flung the bracelet off. Storming into my wardrobe I picked up a One Vintage tunic, and pair of jeans, a pair of Louboutin's and the Leather coat Arthur bought me for Christmas and once I was dressed I went down to the next floor to hunt down Felix and I found him relaxing in the common room.

"Felix" I yelled, and he snapped to attention jumping out of his seat and looking me dead in the eye. "Where is Demetri?" I asked

"In his room Jane, but you don't want to go in there" was Felix's stiff reply, I cocked my eyebrow at him

"Yes I do, I really do" I said as I stormed over to Demetri's bedroom. When I got there Demetri was rollicking around under the sheets with Renata and when the door slammed open they looked like two deer caught in headlights.

"Demetri did you still want that snivelling coward Alistair to die?" I asked bluntly

"Uh…" he stuttered

"Yes or no Demetri, don't waste my time"

"Yes" he replied hesitantly

"Good, now pull your cock out and get your ass into gear" I said before I walked out of the room slamming the door behind me and walking back to the common room where an audience had no gathered, Felix, Heidi and Chelsea all looked at me with shock on their faces

"If anyone of you tell Arthur what I am doing, I will end you" I warned as Demetri came up behind me and I left the room with him skulking in my shadow. On my way out I ran into Alice but I dismissed her as I violently made my way to the garage. Getting into my Porsche I caressed the steering wheel in loving affection put it into gear a flew out of garage and onto the open road.

"Which way do I go?" I asked Demetri

"Drive for Sweden" he replied shortly, it was obvious he was afraid to say more than he needed to. After about four hours of driving viciously toward Sweden we were almost at Bologna when I felt the judder and the steering wheel, despite all my protests began moving itself, the pedals also were moving of their own accord, we lost about 60 mph of speed when the car took a sharp turn down a quite side road which had no lights.

I knew who was doing it before I saw them, and I knew exactly how that person came to know where I was. Three figures where on the road before Demetri and, Alice, Edward Cullen, and Arthur. Arthur to his credit looked wild in his eyes, wild with panic and fear. I got out of the car dutifully and looked at him as I leaned against the hood

"What do you want Arthur?" I asked coolly

"What do I want?" he answered his voice was manic "What do you want? You, who from what I hear has gone on a murderous rampage"

"You couldn't understand why I'm doing this" I snapped at him "And why did you bring hair with you?" I snapped again pointing at Edward with my eyes

"No reason, he was just around at the time" was his reply to my question "And is it that I can't understand, or that you don't want me to. Because I got pulled of duty by Caius telling me that I should go to you because you were upset at Aro, then I get pulled in by Felix who very animatedly tells me that my mate has gone on a murderous rampage dragging poor Demetri into it, AND then, little Alice here tells me you almost bowled her over in a hallway stomping around with a sinister glean in your eye"

"A sinister glean?" I exclaimed looking at Alice, who simply shrugged

"Demetri, please take Alice and Edward and the car back to Volterra, Jane and I need to have a chat"

"Don't move a muscle Demetri" I warned him, Arthur spastically flapped his arms in the air and rolled his eyes. I heard rustling in the car as Demetri, very awkwardly swapped seats from passenger to driver. "What did I just tell you Demetri" I said

"I'm terribly sorry Jane, but he is making me do it" Demetri said, distress in his voice at being so blatantly used as a puppet, when he was in the drivers seat Alice and Edward got into the car, the car started and then drove off, leaving just Arthur and I in the middle of nowhere with just each other as company. Arthur made a gesture to follow him as he walked off into the forest next to us.

After ten minutes of walking Arthur jumped up into a tree and I followed him, before I could realise we were both sitting on a tree branch over looking a quiet and lazy river.

"So you wanted to chat?" I asked him snidely

"I just want you to know" he began smoothly "that I don't mind if you don't want to tell me if something is bothering, but in future, could you just admit that, that is the case instead of running off in the middle of the night saying that I can't possibly understand what you are going through"

"Why is that?" I asked him, this time not in least bit snidely

"Because when you say I can't understand, it makes me feel as if you feel alone and isolated, and I know that maybe you might not understand why, but it hurts me to think you feel that way"

"I'm sorry" I said simply "I understand exactly how you feel, I feel the same way" I told him "Its just I'm not used to feeling like this, not just being responsible for my own feelings"

"Well that's your problem" he told me

"How so?" I asked

"You aren't responsible for mine and your's, we're responsible for each others, we are a team now, we work with each other for each other" He then took my hand in his, and we sat in the tree overlooking the river until the sun rose, with each other, for each other.

"Lets go home" I said as the sun peered through the tops of the trees, he nodded at me and we jumped down and ran swiftly over the Tuscan landscape home.

The next few months went dizzyingly fast, I couldn't tell which way is up, as preparations went ahead for our showdown with the Romanians. Speaking of which, the Romanians had tried a few little skirmishes on our people, something which pleased Aro to no end, the fear that they might be attacked flocked people to our banner, we now stood at 1200 strong ready to face what the Romanians threw at us. Personally I couldn't wait for this war to be over, I couldn't quite take the pressure of having to organize and regiment 400 hundred vampires that were under my captainship; 400 hundred because that is how it was going to work, Alec, Arthur, and I had each been assigned to either Aro, Caius, or Marcus, I had thankfully been drafted to Caius, but poor Arthur was left now with the dishonour of being under Aro. 3 legions of 400 hundred are going to march on the Romanians, so far to our knowledge this is the largest gathering of vampires for a single cause in the entirety of our history, and I say this hesitantly because we still don't know how many vampires were going to fight for the Romanians. My relationship with Arthur was going stronger than ever, at night we spoke for hours and hours about or lives and our days, everyday getting to know each other that little bit better, and that trust that I had for him was slowly becoming an absolute trust. We often sparred together with Alec during the days, something that was becoming increasingly more challenging, and now just about every fight we had ended in a stalemate, Alec would blind us to our senses, and then Arthur would just freeze him where he stood and I would torture him until he let us go. As such we mainly favoured more hand-to-hand combat without using our powers, something that we were now drilling into the recruits is to learn how to fight hand-to-hand, because as we demonstrated with our stalemates, sometimes your power was rendered useless. Much to the chagrin of the Cullen's we were still unable to find Benjamin the element user, he had simply disappeared, Demetri explained is that they must have someone on their side that has a gift much like Bella's shield that can disguise presences of people within its vicinity, that was also why we couldn't get an estimate on their numbers.

Also in this time I had managed to just about completely avoid Aro, only once and that was in May when he came up to me in the training room and asked me a very simple question

"Are they ready?" To which I had a very simple and stern reply

"Yes."

"Good, we begin to move out tomorrow" and with that he walked away.

As it turned out organizing to move 1200 vampires was quite difficult, and as such we had agreed to move only by night and to move in groups of 50 each with a Volturi bottom guard representative at the lead to guide them to the correct place, then a member of the higher guard at each of the rest points to aid in communication, the specialist, protective, and executive guard had been split to guard the five elders who were going to more at random so they're movements couldn't be tracked and Alec, Arthur, and I each had to look after our respective legions to ensure that everyone arrived safely to the battlefield (the irony of that was not wasted on me). And on the 26th of June we would have all gathered at the place where the battle was to happen. Though some would have been there for almost a month. On the 3rd of June the first of my legion were to begin heading out, it was the last time I would see Arthur until the 21st when the last of his legion would have arrived, which means, the next time I get to see the love of my existence, could very well be five days before the last time I get to see him.

As twilight broke over the city of Volterra I gathered with my first group of fighters, they stood straight backed and stiff chinned, all of their eyes were hard and cold, some of them had coven members to see them off, some had their mates, and some had none. I saw Arthur walk toward me, in his hands was my backpack with clothes and other necessities to get me through the next while. I had decided to wear my khaki green Stella McCartney jumpsuit, with the Burberry coat I got for Christmas, as well as my pair of calf-high Louboutin boots.

"I'll see you in two weeks and two days" Arthur said to me

"Not if I see you first" I bantered, he gave a half hearted smile

"I really, really love you" he told me and then gave me a sweet kiss on my lips, a feeling which I would treasure forever

"Just get to me in one piece" I told him and then I gave him a kiss. And then as the night settled over Italy I walked to the head of the column, reluctantly letting go of Arthur's hand

"Alright everyone, we have a big journey to make, lets move out" I commanded before jumping over the wall and running across the countryside, only one thing on my mind. Arthur.

As we settled into our safe house for the day, I made my way around the troops, they all looked grim and frightened, their neat clothes unable to shelter them from the uneasy truth, most of them were going to die soon.

"Look alive people, the future isn't as dark as you think it will be" I told them in a gentle voice, hoping that I can lull them into sweet surrender

"How do you know that?" One vampire asked darkly from the corner "You are Jane of the Volturi, one of the most feared vampires in the world, what do you have to fear?"

"My reputation will ultimately be my downfall I fear" I explained to him, he looked up at me, his eyes fraught with confusion "I have one of the most fearsome powers in the world, I am a feared warrior, I am public enemy number 1, and when the fighting breaks out the Romanians will be stepping over you to get to me"

"So is there a strategy yet?" asked another vampire who was closer to me

"There is no strategy yet, and there won't be until we know exactly how many vampires we are up against, but never you worry, the primary objective for those of us who call are called captains is to ensure as many of you survive as we can manage, your lives are what's important to us" After that there was silence until a little voice came from nowhere

"I hear we are going to neighbours soon Jane" It was little Mary of the Irish coven

"Yes, that's true" I replied to her

"Where are you and young Arthur going to be living?" she asked sweetly, but I was taken aback at the reference to Arthur as 'young' Arthur.

"Arthur and I will be living in Wicklow, as well as the Cullen's, they will be in Bray" I told her

"Well come on everyone, don't just eavesdrop on Jane and mine's conversation, start your own" Mary declared to everyone, and in haste dozens of conversations filled up the room "And where will your brother Alec be staying then?" she asked

"He will be in England doing his own thing" I continued to divulge, all because lying to her was pointless and it would save a lot of time telling her the truth straight up. "And what about you and your coven, what will you be doing when this is over?"

"Ah, we will be doing much as we always have done" I couldn't help but let a chuckle at this

"You know, for a vampire who hates lying, you are very good at not telling the honest truth" she too then laughed

"Perhaps I was testing you?" she offered

"I really don't think you were" I replied

"You're right, I wasn't testing you" And we continued much like that for the rest of the day waiting for the night to come.

Just before nightfall a lone vampire came to the hideout, he was the member of the Volturi who would be escorting the 50 who had come with me from Volterra to the next safe house. I would be staying here for the night and the next day waiting for my next lot to come through before I then began moving again, and then I would be stopping at the last safe house ready to make sure everyone had arrived safe and sound. I would also be running backwards and forwards to any group that needed my assistance, or should there be any deserters, I would be dispatched to bring them back.

"Goodbye all of you, I'll see you at the other end in a few days, and remember that it is not all doom and gloom, so keep talking to each other, it will brighten your spirits and you may even get a friend out of it at the end of the day" I told them as they began running off into the distance. That night, two vampires arrived, they would be the two next chaperones after I left the next night; I didn't speak to them, because they were truly my subordinates, and I had no business telling them that they would live, because they wouldn't, it was now the Volturi's job to put the lives of others ahead of their own so that on the battlefield it was likely that the Volturi may not survive.

Thankfully I reached the other end without any hassle from my division, my name, it appears, had done its job one last time, no one deserted, no one acted out and then I reached my destination, Arthur was on his way and I had Alec to keep my company.

"I can't believe that this could be it" Alec said morosely from where he lay on his back, we were sitting on the battlefield watching to see if there was any sign of the Romanians "900 hundred years and this could be it, I really would have liked to make to 1000"

"Stop complaining" I scolded "This isn't the end, it can't be the end, its much too soon, I mean you haven't found a mate yet"

"That was mean" he whined

"I don't care, its true, having a mate is a wonderful and you are missing out on it"

"Is this your way of saying that you've only had a year with him, because that is a total bummer"

"Bummer? When did you start saying bummer?" I asked him incredulously

"I started saying when things started becoming it" he explained philosophically

"To quote my beloved" I began "Shits fucked" And Alec nodded

"The shit is well and truly fucked" and then we started laughing together, and in that moment I was happy, happy that I had, had at least one more moment with my brother that was truly perfect, in which there was no pretence, just him and me

"Jane?" he inquired as he rolled over onto his stomach and looked me in the eye "What does it feel like, being in love like you are?"

"It feels good" I told him "Like there was a pit in my stomach, and having him there makes fills that pit up, so that not only is there depth, but there is substance and a balance in my life that I had never had before"

"I don't get it" Alec complained as he rolled back onto his back

"And you won't get it, at least, not until you find your mate, because life doesn't feel empty before it happens, but when it does, life before is comparably significantly more empty"

"Okay" he said "That bit made sense"

Not long after that, amidst all the logistical planning that was occurring, Arthur arrived, and in a flurry of excitement, happiness, and passion I jumped into his arms and kissed him like nobody's business and he truly looked the happiest I had ever seen him; and then not long after that Aro, Caius, Marcus, and the wives arrived. It was the eve of battle, the Romanians had been sighted moving toward the field, though their exact numbers were still unknown the scout estimated about 800, which meant at this point we outnumbered them about 2/3, though that could quickly change. At five o'clock in the morning, the morning of the fight we were in Aro's tent arranging the legions.

"Aro and Arthur in the middle, Jane, and Athenadora, and I to their left, and then Marcus, Alec, and Sulpicia to their right" Caius said

"Except, we will need to communicate orders" Aro began "So Caius, you and Marcus will stay with me in the middle, Sulpicia and Athenadora will stay where they are and so will Jane, Alec and Arthur, we can use runners to communicate orders"

"That is agreeable" Marcus said, and Caius nodded as well

"Also, where are the Cullen's?"

"They are with us, Aro" Arthur spoke up

"And the rest of the gifted vampires"

"They have been split up evenly throughout the rank and file, they have also been split into offensive and defensive. Offensive will be toward the front, and defensive will sit at the back" Alec explained

"Very well, I don't see how we can plan this further, you may all break up, get prepared, and have the rank and file there at 7:00 am, any further questions? No? Then we shall adjourn" Once we were outside Alec, Arthur, and I just looked at each other

"Lets call out the troops, then get ready" Alec said and we all nodded and went off our separate ways

"Alright" I bellowed "We are to be on the field for 7:00am, I won't everyone lined up and ready to go by then, pack up your belongings, don't leave anything behind" and then the action started, vampires rushing around left, right, and centre. I walked to Arthur and mine's tent, he was already there slowly getting changed. I walked over to my bag to do the same

"A scout just came back" he started

"What did they report?" I asked

"They just received an extra 200 hundred, now they have a 1500 hundred strong front line" my heart dropped at this, they had us outnumbered, we were now the underhanded.

"Lets hope, that our powers will be enough to stop them" I said with a finality before getting back to dressing. In the end I settled on burnt orange coloured t-shirt with a pair of beige stirrup pants and a pair of navy Louboutin brogues and my Leather coat, topped with the two pieces of jewellery that Arthur had bought me, the ring and the bracelet. Arthur himself was wearing a black form fitting t-shirt with a maroon one button blazer with black pants and slim black leather shoes.

"Is it bad that I'm scared?" he asked me earnestly I looked at him and saw that he was petrified, his eyes were wide

"Its good that you're scared" I told him

"Why? Because it means I have something to lose? Or that I won't do stupid things?" he was panicking so I walked over to him and framed his face in my hands, I gave him a kiss on the lips and then looked him dead in the eyes

"Its just a good thing" I told him, and then after giving him another kiss I let go and walked out of the tent

"Aren't you going to say goodbye?" He asked

"Neither of us are going to die, so there is no need to say goodbye" I assured him

"But still?" he insisted

"Just, be brave for those underneath you, you are powerful and something to be feared and if you look scared they will despair, promise me you'll be brave no matter what happens"

"I promise" he replied "Promise you'll keep fighting no matter what"

"I promise"

It was now 6:30 in the morning and I stood in front of my soldiers, all of them looked kept brave faces.

"Today is not going to be a kind day, today will see many of us fall at the hands of our enemies, today will be brutal, it will be sad, it will push us to our limits for no reason at all." I said to my soldiers as I walked in front of them "But we aren't fighting for today, we are fighting for tomorrow, and tomorrow will be kinder" When I finished my speech I looked at my ranks carefully and I saw the entire Irish coven of Siobhan, Liam, and Maggie, I saw the Amazonian women Senna, Zafrina, and Kakiri, as well as more familiar faces like Santiago and Corin. At 6:45 we had met up with the other to legions who had been about 10 minutes away from us, and then we embarked on what would be the 14 minute march to the battlefield. I realized that I hadn't said anything to Alec, but then this wasn't any different from any other fight and during those I never said goodbye to him then, but then this was different, this was a proper war because we had been fighting for months and instead of 12 of us going to quell a fight, there was 1200 of us. At 6:59 Athenadora and the rest of Elders arrived on the pitch, and I had to hand to Athenadora for being brave enough to wear a dress and a pair of knee high boots.

"Don't you plan on getting dirty?" I asked looking her up and down

"My dear Jane, I am as dirty as they come, but I can at least maintain some decorum" was her short reply to my question.

"Something that must only come with years" I declared and she nodded in agreement. After a few minutes of silence Athenadora spoke again

"I haven't been in a fight like this since the Trojan War, now that was a war set your teeth on edge"

"Who did you fight for?" I asked

"The Trojans" Athenadora answered

"Well that puts me at ease, you couldn't have just said the Greeks for the time being" I quipped.

"If you're that sensitive about why did you even ask" she retorted

"Fair point" I admitted.

At 10 o'clock the backs of everyone stiffened, the Romanians had arrived all 1500 of them walking out onto the field, on a positive note they were in complete disarray it looked like a pack of 1500 individuals, but still 1500 individuals was a lot. When they had finished lining up both Vladimir and Stefan emerged to stand at the front of their rabble; Aro then too along with Caius and Marcus stood in front of our army. Looking around I spotted Victor standing behind the enemies lines I made eye contact with him and I mouthed '_You'll be my first today_" and he simply made a gesture with his head to indicate that the fight was on.

"This is the last opportunity that will be afforded to you and your army to stand down and bow to us" Stefan said

"It would be a shame to kill any of you, and we are willing to forgive those who stand against us" Vladimir finished, he looked around our ranks and sighed when he saw no one moving

"We offer no forgiveness and no mercy, you will be judged on your participation and your actions when this battle concludes" Aro proclaimed "Those of you who have been forced into this battle will be set free from the tyranny of these pretenders" Stefan and Vladimir both hissed at the last bit, their outrage and their quick tempers were going to be held against them again

"So you will not be surrendering then?" Stefan asked

"No" Aro replied

"Then let the battle commence" Vladimir said gently, anger dripping off of his words.

* * *

A/N: Now that the end is nigh, would someone please give me a review, I haven't had one in soooo long...Please?


	28. The Reckoning

Nothing Ever Stays the Same

Chapter 28- The Reckoning

It all happened so fast, in the next minute the Egyptian boy Benjamin, who was standing behind the Romanians, was hurling all of the elements at us, and it was all up to Arthur to stop it. I tapped my runner on the shoulder, he turned around looking thoroughly spooked

"Make sure that Arthur is well protected with a guard, and if he isn't, make sure he gets it" he nodded and ran off "Zafrina" I called, and in the next second the tall Amazonian was at my side

"Yes Jane?" she asked

"Find Benjamin, put him under an illusion, scare him to the next life" she nodded reluctantly "I know this is hard for you" I said just before she did what she needed to do, she just nodded again. Just then my runner came back.

"The Cullen's are covering Arthur ma'am" he said dutifully

"Good, now run to Alec and find out what he plans to do, and tell him I have the Illusionist working on Benjamin" I told the runner, he nodded again and ran off, I turned to Athenadora "You really want to tell me this is like the Trojan war?"

"Absolutely not, this will be a lot more fun" She said and just after she finished Caius was at our sides

"Alright" he began, a hungry look on his face "Marcus and I are going to make the first run at them, Alec is going to numb as much of the line as he can for Marcus, and you Jane are going to vivify as many as you can"

"How many fighters do you need?" I asked

"A hundred" I nodded at him, and then my runner came back

"Alec says that, that is a good plan for now, but that later on you will need the illusionist to work on their entire army while he numbs Benjamin and you kill him while Arthur does a number on the rest"

"Very good" I told him, "now stay behind me until I need you again" I looked back at the battlefield it was a mess of flying rock, fire, lightning, and water; so far as I could tell Arthur had settled for a shield that was much like Bella's, which meant we were now protected from physical and non-physical attacks.

"First quarter get ready to march" I yelled "Back quarter get the defence prepared" I walked forward to the very front of the line with Caius, I looked down the line and I saw Alec and Marcus doing the same, we made eye contact and gave each other a brief nod, this meant that we gave the order in ten seconds.

"Are your fighters ready?" I asked Caius

"Yes they are" He declared looking behind him

"Then good luck" I said before yelling "NOW" at the same time as Alec, and in the next moment two hundred vampires ran out led by Caius and Marcus, my heart was in my chest, waiting, just waiting to get the moment right

"Athenadora, for the next few minutes you are going to be in charge" she nodded, and I began my offensive, my eyes flicking faster than ever before as I bored the full strength of my power into the front lines of the Romanian defence, ten, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty, sixty, I was mowing down ten a second and at the seventh second Caius reached their lines and I switched my focus to the next line who would be bracing themselves, ten, twenty, thirty, forty, sixty, seventy, eighty, ninety, one hundred, hundred and ten. I managed to get to one hundred and thirteen when I was grabbed by Athenadora who physically turned me to the left where I saw three hundred vampires running at us from the side.

"Volturi to the front" I commanded "Athenadora, get behind me"

"Not likely, give me fifty soldiers and I'll run a counter-attack" she said

"Alright, take them from the back" I told her, before she ran off "And to the rest of you, if any of you have any good tricks up your sleeves, now would be a wonderful opportunity to stop them"

"But what about Arthur's shield?" came the voice of Corin

"Arthur's shield will hold for now, but I would rather not see what will happen if he has to deal with three hundred vampires battering at it, and god knows what's happening at the other end"

"Okay, does anyone have neat tricks?" Corin asked, and then a quiet vampire with mousy hair came up to us

"I have a sonic scream" I looked at Corin and gave her a 'what-are-you-going-to-do' shrug of my shoulders

"Go for it" I told her and she sped off and proceeded to scream her head off "Corin hold the line, I have an idea I would like to try out" I ran and stood next to the little banshee and gave my idea a whirl. I was trying something I had never thought of before which was to focus the pain to one part of a vampires body, normally I would just make everything hurt and they would stand in one place, but if I could focus the pain to a specific spot, say the legs, then hopefully I could make them fall over which would make them vulnerable for longer. I stood gazing at one vampires legs carefully inflicting myself upon them, and then, as luck had it they fell over, tumbling over and over as they did, a few vampires running immediately behind her didn't have time react and went down with her. I kept doing it, and together with my little banshee we managed to hold them off for a bit, and then thankfully just before they hit the shield the counter-attack arrived.

The counter-attack came in the form of trees being hurled like javelins and being used like mace's as several vampires came through swinging massive trees wildly

"Excuse me?" came a voice from behind me, I looked and saw a tall, blonde woman standing behind me "I think I may be of service" her Australian accent was permeating through her polite words

"How?" I asked shortly, which was rude, but then again, I didn't really have the time to make every feel warm and gooey

"I can change my physical structure and become intangible" she explained quickly "I can get into the enemy lines rip them apart quickly without being touched"

"But you would have to become tangible in order to attack, that leaves you very vulnerable" I countered

"Not if you are well practiced" she argued

"Are you well practiced?" I asked her bluntly

"Of course" she said confidently

"Then go" I told her, and just after she left I received a runner from Arthur.

"Arthur has said that they have a teleporter over here who keeps trying to break in, he also requests that you try and finish up over here, the main force are attacking the centre now" I nodded at him

"Tell Arthur that I'll get there as soon as I can" I told the runner before he sped off again, I turned to my runner "Get to Alec and tell him to initiate Blitzkrieg"

"Blitzkrieg ma'am?" he asked"Blitzkrieg" I clarified.

Turning to the remaining two-hundred and fifty soldiers that I had I said to them

"Remember your training, and get in file, we are about to initiate the Blitzkrieg manoeuvre" I told them "Athenadora, get ready for Blitzkrieg" I looked out to the field and I saw that our shadow-cat was currently fighting bitterly with their teleporter. Once Athenadora had pulled her soldiers out and behind my force I ran out. The idea behind Blitzkrieg is that we have a continuous wave of fighters attacking the front line, and that once we have killed one vampire we pull back to the rear of the force, the main point of the manoeuvre was to kill as many as we could, as constantly as we could whilst having the minimum number of fighters in danger. "Everyone be prepared, we have no idea what we are going to come up against the minute we step outside those shields" I told everyone "Get ready, NOW" I screamed as everyone began to run forwards. Again I used my power to distract the front lines as we charged, as we did it the enemy didn't quite seem to notice what we were doing and I waited as long as I could before I got my hands around someone's neck and pulled, the lucky individual looked genuinely shocked at having my hands ripping his head off, after I did that I ran back to the rear of the column, took a quick count. Twenty-five, we had lost twenty-five vampires in that attack, and we only managed to kill seventy-five of the enemy. I withdrew myself from the Blitzkrieg tapped five members of the Volturi who were in the legion and ran to take them from the back; it worked for the most part, the six of us hacking our way from the back forward, as I jumped from body to body ripping and tearing for all I was worth, only one or two managed to trap me into a fight but for each of them I ducked and weaved under their arms, swept their legs out from under them tore each of their limbs off. Then something stopped me from continuing, it was a god almighty scream, it tore from the inside out, it was scream I knew I would hear, and hoped that I would never have to make…someone had just seen their mate die, I looked up, using my power as a temporary shield to stop people from coming near me, I saw the pain in her face, the sadness in her eyes, and the slow bloodlust that was now overcoming her, I saw Siobhan of the Irish coven stand over the scraps of Liam bellowing as she tore his killer limb from limb and once she had finished, like a boulder she threw herself into enemy lines breaking from the formation, I looked at my fellow Volturi and gave a shake of my head that indicated for them to follow as we cut our way through the Romanian lines trying to get to Siobhan who was now further and further making her way into the enemy ranks, I saw Athenadora take Corin and Santiago as she made the same move as us.

After seven minutes of emotionally draining fighting as I cut myself ruthlessly through the Romanian rank and file and I watched Athenadora do the same, except there were too many for just the nine of us a before long Siobhan found herself in the same position as her mate, the only difference was that she died at the hands of Victor. With remarkable timing, both Athenadora and myself landed in front of Victor

"Looks like you'll have to deal with the both of us Vicky" Athenadora taunted

"Lucky for me, I have thing for masochism and dear, sweet Jane here will only excite me" He replied

"That is perfectly acceptable Victor, I wouldn't ever dream of giving you satisfaction" I told him through gritted teeth

"You two are both naïve to think you can beat me, I am older than the both of you combined"

"History lecture aside" Athenadora said "You can't cross the both us and expect to live, and the fact you are courageous enough to do it doesn't tell me you are old and wise"

"What does it tell you then?" he asked

"It tells me how monumentally stupid you are" Athenadora declared, and without warning Victor pounced on her, but as quick as that I managed to grab one of his feet and pull him to the ground, then Athenadora and I started circling him, when he stood up he made a motion with his head and two vampires went for Athenadora and I, we both dealt with them quickly and went for Victor, but he was fast, ducking and weaving, parrying everything that we did, and eventually Athenadora and I fell into rhythm with each other and we were sweeping his legs, punching at his head at the same time, then we started ducking in and around each other as we attacked, attacking him sporadically, doing this forced him onto the offensive and when he flew a arm out I would grab it and Athenadora would take it off, then he went for a roundhouse kick aimed at my head, I dodged easily ducking the attack and then I grabbed his leg, twisted it, and travelling up his leg to his lower back I put my arm down trapping his leg and stopping the movement of his lumbar spine, then Athenadora made her move getting his neck in her hands and yanking as hard as she could before I took his leg and broke his spine. Victor was no more, Siobhan had been avenged, and now the group attacking us had lost its captain it became a headless chicken, and even though we had lost over a hundred fighters we still came out the better annihilating the enemy.

"Rally to me" I yelled once the killing had been done, once everyone had assembled I began "I want fifty of you under the command of Athenadora to go and support the right flank, if or when they are in the clear you are to fall under Alec and join in his legion; the rest of you will follow me as we support the rest of the army"

We got there just in time, the front line was about to start crumbling, Caius and the hundred soldiers he had take earlier had been greatly diminished and he was now standing next to Aro trying to salvage what was left of their legion, and Arthur was still having a long distance fight with Benjamin. I looked around to see what had changed and that's when I saw it, newborns, the Romanians had just brought on an extra force of newborns, but they looked quite controlled fighting brutally against our lines, I gazed around the field looking for the reason; when I found it, I found it in the form of the Vampire Godiva, she was sitting at the very back of the lines and looked to be meditating.

"Alright, recommence the Blitzkrieg formation" I commanded, my soldiers nodded and began strategically attacking the opposition of newborn vampires "Corin, Santiago" I gestured for them to follow me

"What is it Jane?" Corin asked me

"There is a vampire who I think is controlling the Newborn's, I need you two to back me up" I explained to them, they nodded and off we went to claim the next victim, we disappeared into the woods in order to loop around, and it seemed for the most part that the Romanians were quite content with attacking head on, so confident and careless with their numbers that they would rather throw their weight around than use any form of legitimate strategy, no wonder they lost all that time ago, they are proper idiots. What I did next I am not proud of, mainly because I do not condone attacking someone from behind, but desperate times call for desperate measures, and I was very desperate. I used my power against her, choosing this time to focus entirely on her head since that is where I assumed the control was and while I did that Corin and Santiago were to blindside her, the plan was flawless, the execution was flawless, in fact the only flaw in the plan was sheer underestimation of the target, as Corin and Santiago flew at her she stood up grabbed the two and then using their momentum against threw them off into the distance. I watched wide eyed as she turned to me

"Only children know pain, and I am no child" she said stiffly, though the attack wasn't perfect, her control lessened and I watched over her shoulder as the behaviour of the newborns became more erratic, their attacks more sloppy, and I watched as our army gained a more even foot to begin a counterattack.

"It's a shame that I can't leave this at that and go" I said with a sigh

"You will fight little one, though you stand little chance against someone as old as I" Godiva gloated

"How old are you then" I asked politely

"Eight-hundred years old" she announced proudly "You will not be able to best my skill and my experience"

Sick and tired of her talking I jumped at her, feigning a high kick I dropped to the ground, slipped under legs grabbed her ponytail and pulled her to the ground.

"By the time I am finished with you, you will know pain" I told her as I flipped myself back onto my feet. When she was back up she ran at me, trying to use her massive frame against me; anticipating what she was going to do, I crouched just before she threw her arm out in a punch, I stood up deflecting her arm with my palm and doing a quick turn I made to make a high kick to catch her in the chest, she however caught it, so moving quickly I thrust myself upwards and brought my other foot up to strike her in head, the hit landed but then before I knew it I was being hurled at the ground, because it seemed being hit in the head didn't cause her to relinquish her grip on my feet, I figured a quick concentrated dose of pain to her hand would sort her out, and it did, her hand recoiled. In the next moment however she was too fast for me and she unleashed a flurry of attacks on me, I could barely keep up with the onslaught of attacks only barely being able to defend myself. But then my saviour came, taking her legs out from under her, coiling their hand around her throat as they thrust her back down to the earth. I looked up to see Alec standing there

"What took you so long? In the time its taking you to overwhelm three hundred vampires, I've done the same, located the vampire responsible for that scene over there" I said pointing back to the main battle "And almost had my ass handed to her on a silver platter, not to mention that I killed Victor with Athenadora"

"Oh well I'm sorry" He sarcastically retorted "But Sulpicia isn't half as helpful as Athenadora in a battle situation, its like Athenadora is actually Athena but Sulpicia is more like Aphrodite, not to mention I just saved you and your ass from that silver platter"

"Fine, fine, lets just finish this together" I stated to finish the argument, not wanting to augment the situation

"Alright then" Alec agreed, and at that moment Godiva decided to get back up. She went for Alec first seeing as he was the one to knock her down, but as she lunged for him she forgot about me and I yanked at her ponytail, then gripping it in my head I forced myself to climb onto her back, then I slipped down onto her shoulders like she was giving me a view of something, like a father would do for a child, then I threw my hands out and Alec grabbed them, then using all the strength that he could muster flipped us into the air, while in the air I switched my position so that I was looking at her in the face. Just before we hit the ground though, I put my arms out and used the momentum gained by Alec to extend my legs force her into the ground face first. The result of the vicious attack that Alec and I had only few opportunities to execute was a Godiva face down in a small crater, her body full of cracks from the impact, standing up I walked over to her body, straddling her shoulders I pulled her head up and whispered into her ear.

"If we are to go by what you said earlier, you didn't lose because I ganged up on you, you lost because I am nine-hundred years old, and am a far more experienced killer."

On our way back to the main battle Alec and I ran into two very special people, who seemed incredibly distraught by the turn of events in this war. Stefan and Vladimir were attempting to make a getaway, abandoning the people that had rallied to them.

"I always knew that you two were scum, but this is something I thought would be below the two of you." The two looked genuinely surprised to have run into us.

"Those who break the rules are scum." Alec began.

"But those who abandon their comrades are worse than scum." I finished

"And a little birdy told me that the two of you have always wanted to get your hands on us, well here we are." Said Alec. The two Romanians gave each other a look, as if they were weighing up the cost of fighting us to the cost of running away, the look they shared suggested that they wanted to fight us, and that was alright by me.

"We will have our revenge." Was all that Stefan said

"You should really stop placing so much emphasis on your broken dynasty." I snapped at him, and as he ran at me and Vladimir ran at Alec I braced myself to use my power, but the second before I could use it he darted out of my line of sight, such a clever boy, I thought to myself, the one actual pitfall to my gift and he was exploiting it, put I didn't need parlour tricks to put him in the ground. I stood still, perfectly still and listening dutifully to my surroundings, the second he went to attack me he would have to make a noise and I would use that against him. He launched at my left blind spot and I nimbly stepped to the right to avoid it, then he quickly made a pivot a turned around following me, he made a another turn and made to get a kick, but as his leg moved parallel with the ground I did a back flip over the leg, landing on my hands I tightly coiled my body and then I uncoiled myself kicking out as I did so, I managed to catch him in the chest. After I had returned to my feet I looked at his face and he looked extremely surprised, I made a cry-baby face at him to taunt him, and I it worked; he came at me with a renewed vigour, thrusting this way and that way, he was fast, possibly faster than me but luckily I was fast enough to keep up with the movements.

"Stay back, stay back; this one is mine." I heard Arthur bellow from somewhere behind me, I took a quick break from my fight with Stefan to look up and see what was happening. The battle had broken, the Volturi were for all intents as purposes winners, but as I looked around I could see that there were still several one-on-one fights that were occurring; there was mine and Alec's; There was the fight between Arthur and Benjamin; Caius was engaged in a fight with a unknown vampire and close beside him Athenadora was also still fighting. Compared to the fighting that had been occurring earlier, the fights that were being played out now looked professional, and everyone executed their technique perfectly, it was the best of both armies now fighting against each other. Stefan had now changed his tactic, and now I was engaged in a legitimate hand-to-hand combat fight with him, we looked like two martial arts masters as we ducked and weaved around each other, our fight reduced to a flurry of arms and legs moving with a blinding speed. I noticed that Stefan wasn't defending his head very well so when the opportunity arose I landed a high kick to his head, unable to defend the attack in time Stefan took the brunt of the blow to the head I went crashing to the ground head over heels. In the next moment there were two Volturi guards present and apprehending Stefan so that he couldn't move and I looked over to Alec and Vladimir, that too was a very even battle; I managed to make eye contact with Alec, he inclined his head to the left which meant he wanted me to intervene, then he moved it to the left again, this meant that he wanted me to engage Vladimir while Alec prepared to use his power. I nodded at my brother, walked over to where he and Vladimir were fighting, tapped Vladimir on the shoulder and when he looked around I brought my fist into contact with his face and he went plummeting to the ground and before he could get back up he was under Alec's power and then he was being apprehended.

When I turned around to watch the rest of the battles I saw that the only fight left was the one between Arthur and Benjamin; it was a spectacular fight to watch, Arthur knocking down boulder after boulder with his hands as the came flying at him, ducking in and around massive gusts of wind as they blew in gales around him as well as dodge waves of water as they crashed around the field. I wondered briefly as to why he wasn't using his power to block all these attacks and then my question was answered when Benjamin began blowing a huge torrent of fire from his mouth and Arthur used his power protect himself. Arthur was on the back foot and couldn't quite seem to get a grip on the fight, but the way he perfectly dodged everything that came at him, the way he seemed to be sitting just below Benjamin suggested to me that Arthur had a plan. The fight continued like this for several minutes when eventually Arthur turned sideways, thrust one hand out towards Benjamin, and with the other he made some movement and then every boulder that Benjamin had used was flying back at him as well as every little stone and twig; then Arthur ran at him and as soon as the torrent stopped Benjamin didn't have enough time to defend himself against an Arthur who was now in close-range; Arthur just put his two fists together and with all the might he could muster brought it down on Benjamin's head. The attack I'm sure would have shattered Benjamin's head, but it didn't because in the next minute Arthur was gesturing to Alec to put him under which meant that Arthur wanted to have Benjamin judged. I ran to him and threw my arms around him, thankful that we had both survived this terrible and difficult ordeal.

"Next time," he whispered into my ear "you take the elemental, because that was much too difficult for my comfort.

"Next time," I whispered back "I don't think there will be another elemental."

* * *

A/N: Thank-god that, that's over I think I can safely say that this has been the most difficult chapter to write. Thank-you to all those who reviewed last chapter, it didn't make writing this easier but it certainly made me more positive about the whole ordeal. Also if you could keep up the reviews that would be nice, it makes me feel warm and fuzzy!


	29. Nowhere Warm

Nothing Ever Stays the Same

Chapter 29- Nowhere Warm

Now the hard part was about to begin; now that the fighting was finished not only did we have go through and judge any surviving members of the opposition, but we also had to face the reality of those we had lost to the fight. As the smoke and ash from the burning corpses began to fill the air of the field Alec, Arthur, and I began to walk back to the formation for the more formal proceedings of the war. When we were stood back in line Aro began the formal proceedings, that's when the first loss hit me in the gut like a punch from Godiva; Marcus, there was no Marcus, there were only two people standing at the front now, Aro, and Caius. Marcus was gone. I looked to Arthur and he seemed to notice the absence as well and it looked to be weighing heavy on him, Alec didn't look surprised, he only looked mournful, I took it to mean that he had saw what had happened.

Aro had been injured at some point during the battle, so I did not look for mercy in his decisions. Caius had lost a brother, so I did not look for kindness in his decisions. I had nearly lost myself, my brother, and my mate, I did not have the energy to find mercy or kindness I was just drained. Not surprisingly Stefan and Vladimir died with the least honour, begging for mercy and squealing like little children, and surprisingly Aro did let some people go, I could only hope that it was a gesture of good faith and not a punishment. When all the judgements had been handed down I didn't want to wait around to see who had lived and who had died, I just wanted to go home, home to my room, my books, my bed; then I wanted to rip it all up and go to my new home, with my new life. I walked off with Arthur and Alec in tow and Aro chased after us.

"I need you to lead the people back to safety." He said to us

"Traitorous whores don't get to lead people" I told him bitterly "Lead your own army for once, put your own effort in for once, maybe then you'll understand."

"Understand what?" he asked bitterly

"Understand that I have already lead these people to safety." I told him dryly and quietly before walking off again.

When I reached the tree line a began to run and I didn't make more than five minutes before Arthur caught up.

"Alec said he would take people back to Volterra that wanted to go to Volterra, and I said I would make sure you got home safely." He said to me before continuing to run in silence. It was nice, he didn't expect me to say anything, and he wasn't put out that I didn't; its probably a good thing that I ended up with someone with a Doctorate in Psychology, despite him being a facetious little brat of a genius. We started running along the coast, not caring for the time of day in the least, we just kept running, it was risky as well as there was always the chance we might be spotted, though with just the two of us the risk of that was very slim; and since we were running day and night with just the two of us the distance was melting beneath us and it seemed that as soon as we had left we were passing Venice and starting to cross inland. A few hours more and we had reached Volterra.

"Something is wrong." Arthur said as he grabbed my arm ad pulled us to a halt at the gates of Volterra

"What is it?" I asked edgily looking around trying to get a feel for everything

"The humans," Arthur began, and I looked at him in anticipation "I can smell their blood; its everywhere." he looked into my eyes, he was afraid, and so was I. I strained my nose and I then I could smell it; it was everywhere, oozing and rotting.

"We need to go in." I said "But we should leave a message for the others." Arthur nodded

"I'll carve something in Latin above the gate" he said as he began scaling the walls to get to the spot he mentioned; I meanwhile walked cautiously into the city, my eyes darted back and forth looking for signs of life. Soon Arthur was standing next to me looking around also.

"We should close the gates; I don't want anyone to slip away" Arthur whispered

"That's a good idea" I answered and we both closed the gates to the city "Lets go to the castle, and see if anything has happened there; stay close to me, it would be unwise to separate when we do not know what is happening." And with that we began discreetly making our way toward the castle, we chose to enter through the garage so as slip unnoticed into the building. We broke down the door and crept our way through the garage level by level, when we got to the door I saw something truly horrific, it was one of the men we had left behind to guard the castle; someone had taken off both of his legs, one of his arms, and taken half of his face. Amazingly he was still alive and when he saw us he started flapping around like a fish out of water to get our attention, Arthur and I ran to him and knelt beside him, I put my finger to my lips to indicate to him to be quiet.

"What happened?" I asked him a deathly whisper

"Newborns, a hundred newborns, stormed the city; they killed everyone and now they are waiting for everyone in throne room, its an ambush. I tried to stop them but I couldn't, so I came here to wait for you"

"Thank-you, is there anything that we can do for you?" I asked him softly

"Please kill me, and then kill them." he asked weakly

"Of course, and I promise you won't feel a thing." Arthur told him

"Thank-you" he then wept

"We will tell stories of your bravery and strength" Arthur whispered softly as he silently and instantly disconnected his head from his shoulders.

"Looks like we have some more killing to do darling." Arthur said as we began walking through the door and into the castle

"I wouldn't have it any other way." I replied

We stormed the castle, taking it level by level, room by room; we were just making sure there wasn't anyone else surreptitiously hanging around the castle before we went and occupied ourselves with a hundred newborns that were in the throne room. Eventually we had made our way to Didyme's garden.

"They're only here to kill us, nothing more, nothing less." Arthur said aloud in safety of the garden

"So it would seem." I agreed "But now that we have scoured every inch of the castle to no avail, they have to be in the throne room, and we have to have a plan." I told him

"From what I've observed, newborns are the most superstitious of all vampires; they probably haven't learned that they might have an ability." Arthur said

"Are you trying to say that we should give them a magic show?" I asked him coyly

"That, my dear, is precisely what I am saying." He said with a smirk.

The plan was set, I was now scaling the back wall of the throne room so that I could position myself in the skylight window which was the only source of light for the immense room. The plan was solid(ish), Arthur would walk in through the front door because he had the best defence and we would start picking them off as stealthily as we could, buying ourselves as much time as we could in the hope that perhaps Felix or someone would be running ahead and could give us some back-up because we knew that we couldn't hold them all of forever, our powers as great and as wonderful as they were had their limits. I was in position and I looked down to see the hundred newborns lazily positioned throughout the room snacking on what was left of the citizens of Volterra; the doors to the room creaked open, all the vampires looked intently at the door starting to stand up and converge on it. Arthur walked through the door and closed it behind him.

"Good-evening children, how can I help you?" he asked suavely

"We want to kill you, and get back to our dinner" one of the vampires said in a sickly voice

"Yes, well, I'm afraid that doesn't fit in with my schedule" Arthur said in a disappointed voice; then they started to run at him, but he hadn't given the signal yet so I had to wait.

"Wait, wait, wait, wait, WAIT" he yelled out and the charging vampires stopped and looked at him intensely "how would you like to see a magic trick?" he asked them

"What's the magic trick" came the voice of a female

"Well, in ten seconds, some of you are going to drop down on the floor screaming; experiencing the worst pain you have ever felt" he said coolly, that was the cue for me, I picked out my targets and when the ten seconds was up I was going to give them a taste of the crippling pain setting. 3,2,1...and action, ten of them dropped to the floor, their screams piercing the stale air in the room.

"Or how about, a stampede" Arthur then called out to them, and by extension, me. And then I switched from the middle of the crowd to the back and I gave them a less intense 'setting' and went to town on them, the pain was such that they started wailing and running in every direction, knocking people down.

"Witchcraft" they started screaming, and Arthur gave them a 'what-are-you-going-to-do-about-it' shrug of his shoulders.

That's when they started to charge at Arthur again; Arthur to his credit kept a cool head as he ducked and weaved around their attacks, his plan was to get them attacking each other, after three minutes of his dodging and the occasional hit Arthur managed to get them to turn on each other, and as silently as a shadow he slipped away from the fight and came and joined me in the skylight.

"That went well I thought, well done to you" he said

"Are we going to go down to them?" I asked

"Lets see how long we can get away with this first" he answered. And we did get away with it for about ten minutes before someone managed to look up and point and scream bloody murder at us, Arthur looked at me and shrugged before he slipped off the ledge and gracefully fell to the floor, I quickly followed him landing not a second after him and joined in on the fight. As far as fighting newborns goes, its fairly easy if you don't let them touch you, and if you have any sort of ability it becomes even simpler, use your ability to stop them from overwhelming you; also they became extremely distracted if you so much as took a finger off, so just my maiming them in such a manner was as good as killing them because more experienced fighters would still go at you if had taken both their arms. About an hour into our massacre Arthur and I had killed about twenty of them each, and given that only ten of them had died with Arthur's let-them-kill-themselves plan, we still had fifty to kill, at least it was looking that daunting until the cavalry arrived.

The Cullen's burst through the main door in a ceremonious fashion, Alec was in the lead and soon the fifty newborns that we had to kill soon came to look more like 3 or 4 with the support of Alec and the Cullen's. The hour of fighting that I SO looked forward too became fifteen minutes as we quickly managed to hack our way through the numbers, none of the newborns putting up anywhere near a decent fight. It ended with me and Arthur pushing two of thrones next to each other and sitting down for a break

"That took a lot longer than I thought it would." I lamented as I lounged on the throne

"Lets never do that again, its far too stressful." Arthur moaned from the throne next to me

"You two are idiots, what made you think you could take on all of them by yourselves?" Alec snapped at us

"I guess we were still in fight mode having run here non-stop." I explained to him

"Not to mention Jane was still in a mood when we got here." Arthur added

"Well that explains Jane at least, what about you Arthur? Why didn't you stop her?" Inquired the soft voice of Carlisle

"I suppose I was upset at my terrible battle stats, that entire battle, however many hundred of enemies and I only got to kill one." Arthur grieved.

Very soon the humans would start figuring that something was wrong, very soon they would come knocking on the gates, very soon the humans would discover that something terrible had happened here and sooner or later they would find us. While they couldn't enter the castle, due to it being private property, they would undoubtedly find things that they shouldn't and as such it is important that we remove the evidence that the castle is being actively used. While I packed up my room, my books, my old life as it were. Using as many trunks and suitcases that I could find; I neatly folded every skirt, dress, blouse and scarf that I owned and gently packed every manuscript and text. While as I was in the process of doing this, Arthur, who had significantly less to pack, was going through my room and packing up all my electronics, such as computers and televisions and placing them pack into the original boxes. After 10 hours of laborious packing I was finished and I looked upon my now sparse room in wonder at how I had managed it. Also while I was doing this Arthur had booked the Cullen's tickets back to the States and they would be flying home soon, well as soon as Aro arrived back. It had been three days since the battle and he wasn't due back for another week or so, and in that time Arthur, Alec and the male Cullen's went through the castle slowly taking out all modern conveniences such as; Kitchen's, Broadband and bathrooms. Everything they removed was tagged and stored in a secret place in the castle so it could be reinstalled.

The fourth day is when the human's began scouring the city; true to our melodramatic fashion we had gathered up all the carcasses that we could and placed them on a pyre in the town square and set it alight and while the boys had been fixing the castle us girls had been running through the city splattering blood across the walls and windows of houses and shops. We overstated the carnage so that it was so intricately messy that human forensics would not be able to function properly with all the blood samples and evidence around the place. On the seventh day Aro arrived back, his face was filled with remorse

"Truly, truly tragic" he lamented "Well done to all of you for the damage control, it was well executed I must admit." After this Caius and Athenadora pulled me aside to inquire about what had happened.

"This is definitely troublesome news, and I fear Volterra is no longer safe for us" he remarked upon hearing my story

"We will have to wait for the humans to leave before we can move anything though, it would be too conspicuous" Athenadora then added

"The biggest problem is moving our visitors from here to the airport" I told them

"We'll have to use the back gate and at night only" Caius said "Its dangerous, but it is less dangerous than the front gate and in the middle of the day, as for moving I get a feeling they will have to open the city up to allow people to sort through their relatives possessions, that will be our first window of opportunity" he continued "I think that will be the best time for you, Alec, and Arthur to leave as well."

We soon found ourselves standing in an airport with the Cullen's about to embark on a plane back to their home, I was wearing a Temperley London Blouse, J Brand denim cargo pants, a pair of ballet flats as well as a new Burberry London trench coat.

"I would like to offer our deepest gratitude on behalf of the Volturi." I said formally to Carlisle

"And we would like to say that we are looking forward to working with you in the very immediate future." Arthur said to them as he coiled his arm around my waist and pulled me close

"When would you like us to start?" Esme asked

"Whenever you're ready; it'll take time to get everything set up, and we understand that it is a big transition and move." Arthur told them

"And the mass funeral, when will that be?" Carlisle asked

"We aren't sure, but I'm confident that it won't be for a while yet." I explained, he nodded and I heard their flight being called. I offered my hand to Carlisle and he took it and we shook fondly

"We'll see you soon." he said before moving on to Arthur, Esme was next, but before I could extend my hand she had pulled me into a hug, one which I gladly reciprocated

"Its been a pleasure." she said to me; next came Alice, she gave me a mighty hug and I thought she might actually squeeze the life out of me. Jasper came after and he gave me a handshake followed through with a quick kiss on the hand. Emmet was next, and he gave me a mighty handshake and a blaring smile; he was followed by Rosalie who gave me a stiff hug as well as a very formal kiss on each cheek. Edward, Bella, and Renesmee were last, Edward and Bella were stiff and each gave me a handshake but little Renesmee was a smiles and waves as they disappeared into the departures lounge.

"It's a shame Alec didn't decide to stay, they're very nice people" Arthur said to me

"They are." I said simply "Come on, its time to the last bit of packing, we are moving tomorrow after all"

"You know, you were always the one we worried about." Athenadora said to me as I stood in my deserted bedroom "Always so bitter and twisted, never in a million years would I have imagined you in this position, I'm very proud of you."

"I feel as if you just simultaneously complimented, and insulted me" I told her

"That's because I did." she said in earnest, I smiled lightly at this.

"Would THEY be proud?" I asked her, referencing those that we had lost in the battle

"Of course they would, this was a family, and they would have wanted nothing more than to see you not only be happy, but pursue that happiness." She said "especially Marcus, he was very fond of you" I smiled again at that.

"And what about Aro?" I pushed

"Aro, hasn't been happy with anything for a while now; so if he doesn't say goodbye, don't take it personally." she explained to me "it's time for you to go, be as happy and successful as you want to be, and do it with our blessings"

"Thank-you" I told her "Will you come visit me at least?" I then asked her

"Visit?" he said taken aback "Jane, I have seen pictures, Caius and I will be living there" she said with a chuckle. I looked over the familiar walls, not for the last time, but for a while at least. I walked down the stone corridor to the common room where I saw Alec sitting down, I sat down next to him.

"So, this is goodbye for now." he said quietly

"I'm sure we'll see each other all the time." I weakly tried to assure him

"No we won't, but that's okay; we'll see each other went it matters." he nudged me

"What!" I scoffed "Like birthdays and Christmas?"

"No, death-day's and Halloween" he said playfully

"I'll miss you" I told him

"I'll miss you as well, but I'm sure we can still go on missions together, after all, we'll be making the rules."

"Good point" I replied as I rested my head on his shoulder

"Where is Arthur?" he asked

"Not sure, off doing Arthur things I'm sure" I replied to him and he chuckled

"When did you get a sense of humour?" he asked

"Not sure, I guess Arthur is rubbing off on me" I said innocently

"Aw, gross Jane, I never wanted to hear you say that" Alec replied in disgust, it took me a second to catch up on what he was thinking.

"Pervert!" I snapped at him as I playfully punched him in the stomach. And that's how that went for another hour until I decided that it was time to go.

I found Arthur in the garage, playing what looked like eenie-meenie-minie-moe.

"What are you doing?" I asked him

"We have to decide which car we are taking" he said pointing to my Porsche and his Maserati. "We can take one now, but we'll have to wait for the funeral before we bring the other one up with us." he explained

"Well which is the least conspicuous?" I asked

"It depends, the Maserati is less conspicuous in Italy, but as for the rest of the journey it might be a bit obvious, the Porsche might be a bit conspicuous in Italy but less so in the rest of Europe." Arthur argued

"Okay then." I said slinking up beside him "We're taking the Porsche." I declared

"Alright then, settled." Arthur said before turning and looking at me. "Are you ready to do this?" he asked

"I won't be ready until I've done it." I told him

"Okay."

"We should go today, in half an hour; just get our bags and leave, I don't want to say good-bye to anyone" I said

"You mean you don't want to be reminded of who isn't here to say good-bye?" Arthur asked, and I nodded because it was the truth, it was a hard truth though. We jumped into the car, Arthur was going to drive as far as the France-Switzerland border before I took over for him. The drive was quiet and the mood was sombre as we slowly wound our way through Europe toward our destination.

"I think it'll be hard to go back now" I said as I gazed out of my window and onto the Swiss country-side

"Why do you say that?" Arthur asked

"Because in my head I've left, and so has everyone who made it a home" Arthur took my hand in his and just held it "I can still see their faces, hear their screams"

"That's a good thing" Arthur told me and I looked at him quizzically, not quite understanding how the sounds and sights that were torturing me were a good thing "now you have something to hold onto, something to fight for; because you know the pain, you will do what you can to stop others from feeling it."

"That's all very well and profound, but it doesn't the hurt"

"Nothing will stop the hurt, except, and I appreciate the clichéd nature of this, time."

"You're a psychologist, and you have no better advice to offer me?" I queried

"Technically I only have a doctorate in Psychology, the board that governs who becomes a Psychologist or not deemed me too young."

"Don't bullshit me Corcoran, just because you haven't been officiated doesn't mean you don't know all the content"

"It wouldn't be ethical for me to do that."

"You kill people to survive and you want to talk to me about ethics?"

"What I do to survive isn't in question right now; what is in question is what I do for a living"

"What did I say about bullshit"

"In honesty, we are vampires! Psychology is for humans"

"Is that your final answer?" I asked him, he nodded his eyes firmly set on the road "Well I always knew you were a quack"

"I'm not going to have this conversation with you"

"Quack, quack, quack, quack"

"Stop that Jane, or so help me I will pull this car over and I will psychoanalyse you, I will psychoanalyse you so hard you'll walk sideways for the rest of your existence" he snapped

"What does psychoanalysis and walking sideways have in common?" I asked him playfully

"Sex Jane, everything comes down to sex; honestly how can you call yourself a worldly person and not know that"

"Are you saying that your method of psychoanalysis is to have sex?"

"I didn't say that, you said that, I just said that sex is the common denominator; besides having sex with you in that context would so not help your 'daddy' issues"

"I don't want to play this game anymore" I snapped

"That's what I thought" Arthur replied smugly.

After hours and hours of driving and travelling we were finally back in Ireland and Arthur was back behind the wheel driving toward our new home and I didn't take long for the ostentatious Porsche to find its way winding through the driveway of our new home.

"An empty house has never looked so attractive, has it?" Arthur asked me

"I can't honestly say that it has."


End file.
